Stung
by Miratete
Summary: Chapter 7: "The Day the Rainstorm Hit" posted! Bumblebee sends a message home to the Autobots on Earth. The return message from the Autobots contains a special present for Bumblebee from the lover he left behind. But bad news has come with the good. On researching transport home, the plan to return to Earth has hit a snag.
1. Saying Goodbye

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 1: Saying Goodbye**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee woke to the feeling of fingers on his faceplate and found Smokescreen half atop him staring into his optics, blue meeting blue. "Good morning, bright one," Smokescreen crooned and leaned forward to place a kiss onto the minibot's forehead. "Did I allow you enough recharge time?"

Bumblebee cracked a smile. "You did, but then _he_ showed up."

"I didn't invite him. Did you?" queried Smokescreen, reapplying the kiss as if the mention of _him_ would dull it..

"Not I."

"Not that I minded," the larger bot purred. Jealousy was not a common trait in Cybertronian personalities, and those who suffered from it tended to keep to like-minded sorts. "It seems everything I've heard about him is true. I just don't know how you could keep up with him though." Smokescreen ran his hand down Bumblebee's yellow plating and teased the seam between his windshield and chest panel, but on getting little reaction, he slipped his hand down further. He'd only begun taking the little yellow mech to his berth at the beginning of the summer, and being only August he was still learning where best to touch him and how best to please him.

"Minibot efficiency. We can go twice as far on a full tank."

"So I see." Smokescreen's stroking continued down to where the bot's chest met his waist articulation. This definitely got a reaction. And when he pushed his hand beneath the chest panel's underplating, his digits shoving into the cables that connected Bumblebee's alt-mode dashboard to the rest of him, it received a strong one. Bumblebee cried out in pleasure as his back arched, flinging his arms out to the sides.

One of those arms hit Cliffjumper, lying in recharge next to them. Cliffjumper shrieked at the sudden strike and rolled off of the berth, his pistol flashing out ready to defend himself against a Decepticon attack.

For a few astroseconds the two others blinked at him, and then broke into fits of giggles. "Note to self. Do not wake C.J. suddenly," Smokescreen grinned.

Cliffjumper, on-lining fully and coming to realize what must have happened, re-holstered his weapon. "You know, you can wake me with a kiss instead of a slap," he grouched, hopping back up onto the padded berth in Smokescreen's quarters. He settled again with a harrumph, lying on his side with his head turned toward the other two. His optics blinked off, and then on again. "So I hear you're off to Cybertron for a while," he said with his optics on the yellow bot.

"I am. Team of seven. Going to get more Cybertonium to keep on hand. Carly and Spike are leading since they went before."

"That's why I invited Bumblebee over...to say a proper goodbye," Smokescreen explained.

"Since when have _you_ ever said a proper goodbye?" Cliffjumper teased. "And hey, is Huffer on the mission? I noticed Wheeljack fitting him with a trailer...what, two days ago?"

"Yep. He and Skids will be our primary transports once we've found what we need."

"Excellent. And when do you leave?"

"We're reporting to the space bridge at ten. Departure at ten-fifteen."

Cliffjumper checked his chronometer. "Well then...still plenty of time for me to say a proper goodbye," he said, wriggling across the berth toward Bumblebee, but giving Smokescreen a saucy look at the appropriation of his words.

"Didn't you last night?" Smokescreen started to settle himself possessively atop the minibot. While he didn't mind sharing, he wasn't about to let Cliffjumper and his boundless enthusiasm upstage him again.

"That was a proper hello," he grinned and started to wedge himself between the two others, actually managing to lever Smokescreen off-balance, where he fumbled and ended up on the floor. Cliffjumper immediately took his place atop the yellow mech. From the deck panels Smokescreen cursed and made threats should one of his doorwings be bent or a hinge strained.

Bumblebee kissed him good morning, enjoying the enthusiastic attentions of his fellow minibot. They'd been hooking up off and on for quite some time, both on Earth and back on Cybertron, and so he knew Cliffjumper quite well, both on the battlefield and in the berthroom. Those rising surges in the red mech's energy field told him that it wouldn't be long before the three of them were back at it again, a tangle of need and passion.

It was a wonderful way to start a mission.

-o-o-o-o-o-

We ready to roll?" asked Jazz of the others on the team as they did a quick check outside of the ring of the space bridge. The two jets that had opposed their borrowing the space bridge had been quickly dealt with.

"Ready!" came back six other voices. Brawn gave the off-lined Dirge a kick for spite before transforming. Carly hopped into Bumblebee and Spike into Huffer, who was in closest proximity to him after the brief tangle.

Jazz dove into his transformation and rolled for the open door of the space bridge, the other five Autobots following. The door of the teleport ring closed behind them.

"Ready here," came Wheeljack's voice over the comlink from headquarters.

"Hit it!" was the response.

Wheeljack nodded to Chip Chase, who pulled the activator switch and the whirling light of the space bridge rose, engulfing the seven passengers. Quickly they were dissolved into energy signatures and flung across the nothingness toward Cybertron.

The engineer's sensor wings twitched. "Did you see that?" Wheeljack asked Chip on seeing that the passengers had departed successfully.

"See what?"

"That flicker on the controls. Just as you activated the bridge." He tapped the board in front of Chip with a finger.

"I was watching the viewscreen," he said.

"I don't think it was much, but there was something," he said, checking his memory recording.

"Probably just a power surge or stutter as the bridge control pulled more current. Nothing to worry about, I'm sure," Chip decided. All of the readings indicated that the bridge's operation was normal.

-o-o-o-o-o-

As the light of the rematerialization process faded, Carly immediately suspected something was wrong. And seeing only Bumblebee beside her, she knew that something had gone horribly wrong. Jazz, Spike, Skids, Brawn, and Huffer were nowhere to be seen. And normally there would be a space bridge structure there to receive them. But there was only a flat expanse of nearly barren land.

"What the..." Bumblebee gasped and transformed back to his root form.

"This doesn't look right," was Carly's appraisal of the situation.

Instead just she and Bumblebee stood on a dusty desert plain, the ground a litter of gravel broken by shallow washes and occasional out of place boulders. The horizon was a bumpy line dividing pale beige mesas from a cloudless sky of an uncomfortable blue-green color. Plant life was sparse, just dry-looking grass and a few scraggly shrubs, and one bushy thing that appeared to be a mass of dead vines sprouting tiny linear leaves.

"This isn't Cybertron," said Bumblebee, beating her to voicing the thought by only a second.

"No...not at least anywhere I've been on Cybertron."

"It isn't. There's nowhere like this on Cybertron. We're somewhere else. Somewhere else entirely."

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Stung continues in Chapter 2: Hax Horobis**

Skids finds himself separated from the others, and Bumblebee and Carly are attacked in the desert. A promise made to Spike comes to light.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	2. Hax Horobis

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 2: Hax Horobis**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Trees? There weren't trees on Cybertron. There were trees on plenty of other planets, but not on Cybertron.

Sensors spinning, Skids stared at the dense purplish-green jungle rising up around him. There was a muddy track through the greenery, an oppressive humidity in the air, and strange noises about. Not animal noises, but perhaps mechanical. He couldn't quite tell. The radio silence was even more unnerving. Why weren't the other members of the team responding to his calls?

And then something whistled overhead, its tone changing as it went. And suddenly the bank of trees beside him exploded in fire and fury and a blast of broken wood. Skids was knocked to the damp ground. And then came shouts and screams, followed by another explosion, thankfully not quite as close. The Autobot buried his face into the thick undergrowth and brought his arms over his head as wet splinters of wood and clods of soil rained down.

It wasn't Cybertron, but it was a war zone just the same.

As the fallout subsided, he picked his head up just enough to look around, and spotting a low area not too far away, he crawled for it and rolled himself in, hoping it wasn't too muddy or full of water. Thankfully it was only filled with moss and more of the thick undergrowth.

More shouts tumbled through the jungle, and at that point he saw two dark figures—two mechs his size—emerge from the trees and stalk along the track, rifle-type weapons in hand. He reached for his own weapon, a twin electron blaster, and drew it out. Cautiously he watched the pair, straining to make out their insignia, but could not see any, unless the white seven-pointed stars each wore served as such. The shorter mech had one at the center of his chest and the other's was spread across a thigh panel. At least they weren't Decepticons. But who were they?

A loud shriek broke the heavy silence and something landed hard on his arm and back, forcing his weapon and body flat to the ground. He turned his head, but before he could get a glimpse, he was hauled to his feet and held by two pairs of arms while a third person held the nose of a rifle at his head. He'd been captured by more of the same dark blue mechs.

And then he realized that the rifle bearer was a femme...and an attractive one at that.

She whistled at him with an intonation of demanding, questioning him in a language he did not know or even recognize for that matter. When he didn't answer she shoved the rifle right against his cheek and asked again.

"I'm sorry. I don't understand what you're asking," he apologized in Cybertronian, shrugging his shoulders and trying to look helpless. And he tried not to stare at her. It had been so long since he'd laid eyes on a femme, let alone one as exquisitely beautiful as she was. She was encased by heavy navy-blue plating decorated only with a few sunshine-yellow stripes. The same white star the others wore curled over one hip. Her plating was intimidatingly spiky at the edges and did not give any hint of an alternate mode. Contrastingly, her deep black sub-plating was smooth and enticingly curved. Her golden optics had actual shutters over them and her silver face...who wouldn't fall for a face like that?

When he glanced at his other two captors, he found them to be a mech and a second femme, both as impressively attractive as the one with the rifle. The femme was equally lovely, while the mech's features were stronger and more expressively sculpted. Both also had golden optics.

The femme with the rifle whistled at him again, definitely asking a question of him as told by her tone. She lowered her weapon a notch and peered at the red Autobot insignia emblazoned on his chest. The other two leaned forward a bit to see what she was addressing.

"I'm sorry," Skids pleaded again. "I can't understand your language."

She tried again, and this time she used a different language—one he knew. "Who are you? What are you doing here?" she asked in Pelagic.

All Autobots knew Pelagic. It was the closest thing to a universal language that the space-farers had come up with—the language of those that wandered the stars. "My name is Skids...and I'm not sure what I'm doing here, or even where I am for that matter. I just sortof...arrived."

Pleased at being able to communicate, but still on the offensive, she tapped his Autobot symbol roughly with the nose of the rifle. "What symbol is this? Whose side are you on?" she demanded.

Skids looked about at the five robots surrounding him. The two he'd first seen had come over to assist the others with their prisoner. There was no sign that they were Decepticons or even Decepticon sympathizers. One more test though... "It's from Cybertron."

There followed only puzzled looks and glances at each other. "You know, Cybertron? Primus' greatest creation?"

Again the same bewildered result. They were looking at each other to see if any of them had some idea what their prisoner was talking about.

Skids vented a sigh of relief. Perhaps he wasn't a friend here, wherever here was, but at least he wasn't a foe. Looking at the five soldiers standing about him, he was truly thankful that at least they weren't Decepticons.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly walked over to a boulder and leapt up onto it to get a better look at the surroundings. "I think the bridge took us to New Mexico or something. Maybe Arizona. Look at this place."

Bumblebee was trying his communications system, but the constant static was not encouraging.

"Well?" Carly prompted, seeing what he was doing. And she wasn't liking the odd crook to his mouth, the expression he wore when something was worrying him.

"I can't contact the others."

"Have you tried the base frequencies?"

"Doing it now."

"It's got to be Earth. Well, maybe. The air seems the same, though the sky..." She fixed her eyes on the blue-green welkin once again. "The sky seems... weird." She hopped down from the boulder and began to climb a nearby hill. And from the slope she found the same emptiness around her, though a few tracks, distinctly vehicular in origin, lay across the dusty plain. This was hopeful. "Do you think it's sunrise or sunset?" she asked looking at the horizon, where the sun hung a mere twenty degrees or so above it. She looked at her wrist. "It's ten-thirty according to my watch."

"My chronometer says the same."

"So then why is the sun so low?"

The Autobot looked about and couldn't decide. So he tried his navigational systems. He'd been equipped with a rather unsophisticated directional unit, barely a step above a standard GPS like the one Carly had in her car. And like a standard GPS, his also relied on having a satellite in orbit. Cosmos and Jetfire could have told him in moments where exactly they were in regards to this planet. And within minutes they could have told him where exactly in the known universe he stood. Instead he was clueless, not even knowing which direction the sun was moving in relation to them. He could probably magnetize something to form a compass, but all it would do would be to point to one of the planet's magnetic poles. And then they'd know which direction to travel if they wished to visit that pole...

Bumblebee tried his radio again, moving to other frequencies, and found signals, but not on any familiar channels or even in any reasonably familiar languages. But from them, he was able to ascertain there was a major transmission source about fifty miles away. He sat down and listened while Carly continued to climb the hill.

Most of the signals were weak, but they pointed clearly to local, low-level communication. There was a strong signal that played music and chatter in a language his translator refused to acknowledge. An even stronger one came up and it seemed to be a weather station broadcasting an infinite stream of temperatures and wind conditions...in Pelagian. And when the strongest signal came up, he recognized it in an instant. It was a spaceport traffic control channel. Putting the evidence together, he sighed with some relief. This planet was inhabited _and_ there was a land-based spaceport relatively nearby. They would be able to find out where they were and arrange for transport home.

He rose and went after Carly, walking up the hillside to where she stood nearly at the top. Her hands shaded her eyes. "See anything?" he asked as he approached.

"There was something bright in the sky out there," she said, pointing far into the distance. "But now it's gone. It looked sorta like an airplane catching the light."

"Well, it seems we're near a spaceport. I went through a wider range of radio signals and found some I could identify. One of them was a spaceport control tower. I probably heard them bringing in whatever you saw. It was in that direction."

"Any idea of where we are?"

"Somewhere they use Pelagian."

"Planet Pelagus, perhaps?"

Bumblebee chuckled. "There is no planet Pelagus. Pelagian was created as a common language for the space-faring races, to be used in politics and trade. It's one of the most common languages spoken in the known galaxy. In some places it's even displaced the native languages."

"Well that narrows it down," sighed Carly sarcastically. "And still no sign of the others?"

"Nope. If they were here we'd have heard from them already I expect. I tried to reach them immediately, and they would have too."

"I wonder if they're even on this planet."

"Chances are...well..." Bumblebee stopped. He had no idea. "I keep hoping they're just out of communications range."

-o-o-o-o-o-

They followed one of the tracks seen from the hillside, one which had more or less headed in the direction they wanted. The sun crawled slowly higher into the sky of the new planet, confirming that it was morning. And it was decided that this one had a much longer day than Earth did. The heat of the day was increasing as well, and sensors reported it to be 85° and rising. They discussed what might have happened to have sent them to this unknown planet, and where the others might have ended up. Mostly Carly worried about Spike. What if he'd been dropped somewhere that wouldn't support human life? She'd seen him jump into Huffer, the closest Autobot when they entered the space bridge. What if Spike had been deposited on Jupiter or on an asteroid or somewhere else that would kill him within minutes? They tried not to think about the potential tragic outcomes, but that possibility was very real.

After an hour of driving, Bumblebee pulled off to the side to take a break from traveling. Carly got out and stretched, enjoying a break from the rough, washboard-prone road. Bumblebee didn't have much for comfort regarding his alt-mode. It was what he'd been rebuilt with by a computer that never expected an alt-mode to actually be carrying passengers. Smooth, asphalted roads and glorious stretches of fresh concrete were fine, but long journeys or rough terrain got uncomfortable for a human riding inside.

Bumblebee transformed and stretched as well, taking in air that seemed to match Earth's very closely. Apart from the strange sky color and unidentifiable greenery, it did look like they'd been dropped outside of Barstow or Tucson. They were in a sandy dry wash that wandered across the plains, but in the shadow of a deep overhang there was a small pool of water. Carly moved toward the pool curiously, wondering if it would contain insects or tiny fish, but it appeared empty of all but algae. What did catch her attention were the numbers of tracks leading up to the pool. Clearly it was a watering hole for local fauna. She crouched down and peered at them, trying to determine what would make that sort of a print. They were like nothing she recognized.

And then she found out.

Carly was knocked to the ground as something pounced upon her, shoving her against the sand. She screeched as large scaly brown mandibles clamped around her arm and bit tightly, getting a good hold of her. As it began to drag her away, she got only the faintest glimpse of what had her, and as far as she could tell it was some sort of giant insect—one roughly the size of a horse.

"Hold as still as you can, Carly!" shouted Bumblebee, and she could hear him running toward her.

Fighting her instinct she forced herself to go limp. Bumblebee was probably trying to get a clear shot. And sure enough there was gunfire and the thing hauling her away hissed. Another shot and the creature released its grip on her arm. She fell roughly to the cobbled ground and it staggered away, stunned and worried for its life. Bumblebee kept his weaponry on its lowest setting, which was apparently enough to scare it into a retreat.

"Carly! Oh Primus! I'm glad I was here!" Bumblebee ran up and stood over her, brandishing the pistol in readiness should it turn and come back for her. But it didn't. The tan-colored thing disappeared quickly into the thicker bushes at the edge of the wash and was away.

The mech helped Carly to her feet and then knelt, poking out his knee for her to lean against. His hands took her arm and pushed her sleeve up, Carly turning away. She couldn't bear to look. All she'd seen were horrible beetle-like jaws clenched around her upper arm and lots of legs. There was a definite wet and dripping feeling and she feared the worst.

Bumblebee gently turned her arm back and forth in his hands, examining it. "I can't believe that it didn't break your skin," he said, calming somewhat.

For the first time she dared to look over at her arm, having been bracing herself to see blood and torn flesh. But the wet feeling was soon realized to be just water dripping off of her, and the pain was probably just serious pinching and bruising. She must have been knocked partly into the pool when it had jumped on her. The marks of the thing's mandibles were there, but there was no blood to be seen. "What was it?" she asked, her voice shaking to match her body. The adrenaline was surging through her system.

"I'm not sure. I've never seen anything like it. It seemed to be some sort of giant insect...thing. It had six legs and some sort of exoskeleton, or at least an armored hide. I didn't kill it, but I don't think it will be back. It was easy to shoot and definitely didn't like it."

Carly managed to find her footing and she gingerly massaged the painful arm. "I'm sure I'm going to have some awful bruises from this," she decided, pushing her sleeve back down.

"I guess we got lucky."

And then she looked up at the Autobot. "Thank you, 'Bee. You probably saved my life. It probably grabbed me for food, and here I am unarmed." She embraced him with her right arm, her uninjured one, and tried not to let the moment of terror get to her.

"You would have done the same thing if it had been me getting attacked. I know you would have."

"I wish I had a weapon. What if there are more of those things around?"

"You'll be safe if we're together. I'll look after you. I always told Spike that if anything ever happened to him, I would."

"You told him that?"

"Hey, he's my best friend. Of course I would, and I'd say this situation qualifies. He made me promise him, that if ever something were to happen to him, that I would take care of you. And I think this situation qualifies.""

She hugged him again. "Oh 'Bee. That's so sweet of you."

They stood for a moment holding each other. "Shall we?" the mech asked after a minute, putting away his blaster. They walked back to the road. Transforming again to his vehicular mode, Carly got in, fastened her seatbelt, and the pair set off once more.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Following the collection of alien radio signals, Bumblebee and Carly continued across the desert, neither really wanting to talk now about the worry that they were far from home, whether home was counted as Earth or Cybertron. Bumblebee tuned in his radio to the station he'd found earlier broadcasting music. They listened to it, Carly coming to the opinion that it was simply mariachi music played on Chinese instruments. And after a while of listening, suddenly Bumblebee gasped a startled "Look up! Overhead!"

Carly leaned forward and gazed up through Bumblebee's windshield. Above them, a huge spaceship was coming into view, moving in the same general direction they were. As its shadow rolled over they and the hot desert were granted a temporary respite from the baking sun by the shade of the massive thing. The temperature had climbed to 95° outside and the sun appeared to be only now reaching its zenith.

"I think it's heading for the same coordinates we are."

"I wonder if this is a good thing or a bad thing..." Carly worried.

"No way to tell, at least yet. I'd guess that it's just a cargo ship. It doesn't have the look or feel of a warship."

And after another another hour of travel, the passage of several more spaceships overhead, and the passage of some other wheeled vehicle heading in the opposite direction, the road approached the edge of the plateau the road had been crossing for some time. Bumblebee stopped at an overlook and Carly got out again.

Below them in a fairly flat valley, the great expanse of a major planet-side spaceport sprawled. Spread across the plain was a network of landing fields and platforms, passenger trains linking them all to a central hub, from which spilled a small city. Taking it in, Carly remarked that it appeared to be the interstellar equivalent of a highway exit featuring a major truck stop. Bumblebee, quite familiar with these places, had to agree.

And after enough staring, they continued along the road which soon began dropping down into the valley below.

-o-o-o-o-o-

"Can you read any of the signs?" Carly inquired. "Are they in Pelagian?"

The two were now inside the spaceport, staring at the long hallway lined with services and offices.

"Some of them," the robot answered, looking about slowly. "It seems we're at the spaceport of Hax Horobis."

"Any idea where that is?"

"I've never heard of it. Let me see if I can look it up."

Bumblebee moved to the side of the hallway and froze for a moment while he accessed his data banks, and then he let out a long sigh. "Well, like Spike always says, I've got some good news and some bad news."

"I'll take the bad news first."

"We're a long, long way from Earth. And Cybertron. I had no idea that a space bridge could send someone so far."

"Like how far?"

Bumblebee's optics darkened. "We're on the other side of the galactic center."

Carly bit her lip. "The other side? How is that even possible? Are we stuck here then?"

"Well that brings us to the good news. Hax Horobis is a major spaceport, so we should be able to find some transportation back to familiar space. It might take a while, but at least we aren't stranded here. It could be a lot worse."

"If we find a way to send a message home, couldn't Cosmos just come pick us up?"

Bumblebee wanted to laugh, but refrained. "Cosmos isn't much good outside of our local interstellar neighborhood. The stars you see in the night sky are pretty much his limit."

"Oh, I see," she said crestfallen. "So what next then? Start looking for a ride? See if we can find some way to contact the base? Send an interstellar telegram? I know your radio won't contact that far even with a power boost."

"Not even close. I suppose we could find a telegram office."

He looked about the businesses and after a bit of walking he spotted what he was looking for. There were places that, for a fee, would send messages and data files across the great emptiness of space. He went into the office and studied the board above where different rates and plans were offered. What he also noticed was that he did not recognize the currency symbol next to all the numbers. Inquiring with the clerk behind the counter, there came a dreadful revelation. His money was no good here. He had a good supply of credits to his name, and could tap into other Autobot accounts if need be, but here, without any connection to an established interstellar bank, he was penniless. Taking a brochure with him, he headed for the currency exchange office he'd noticed on the way in, and they only confirmed that he was penniless. He didn't even have any precious metals on him that he could exchange for currency.

Sighing, he headed for the information desk to see if there were any embassies or consuls in the city that might be able to help them. And the lack of such only confirmed that they were a long, long way from home.

Disheartened they sat on a bench in the spaceport, Carly leaning up against Bumblebee. And in time she fell asleep. Bumblebee held still so as not to disturb her. It had been a rough day, for both of them. When she woke in a couple of hours, he got out the cooler he had subspaced for her and Spike. From it she removed a sandwich, which she ate in silence.

"Well, I have a week's worth of food for two people and a few clothes. It's not much, but it could be worse. Who knows where Spike ended up, and even if he survived that, he probably doesn't have anything besides what was in his pack. Any chance you could send a telegram on some kind of credit?"

"I doubt it. I can ask. Though probably there's some police force we could ask to send one."

"That would be a good idea. I suppose someone around here might offer us a bit of charity given what's happened. These are civilized people."

-o-o-o-o-o-

They went out into the city, Bumblebee having tapped into the city directory. Thankfully it was mostly in Pelagian, but the large Taliseet population here made things a bit difficult. From what he could learn, the Taliseet were the first settlers on this desert planet some centuries ago, their reptilian bodies being suited to the dryness of the atmosphere and the extremes of the summer heat. It was their language and script that formed the bulk of what he couldn't understand or read.

The city was a fascinating place, built along three major roads which dodged two large arroyos that ran through the area. Near the spaceport, the businesses were mostly hotels, restaurants, and services for travelers. Moving away from there, they found shops and residential areas. It wasn't a large city, but it was fairly compact, with three to five storied buildings being the norm near the spaceport, and two to three being more typical on the edges. Taxicabs and pedicabs plied the streets. And many merchants had small street-side stalls along the wide sidewalks, setting up in the spaces between the roadway and pedestrian areas. The range of goods for sale was a real lesson in local culture for the two aliens.

The day plodded on and they followed the few ideas they had. The police department shuffled them off to the city offices. The city offices suggested they try the shelter for victims of domestic violence. The people at the shelter were very nice, but no-one could speak Pelagian or any of the other languages Bumblebee had in his translator. Trying again at the city offices, they were sent to some temple that supposedly gave charity to the downtrodden in the Holy Name of Tning the Merciful. The doddering old priests there, of an unrecognized somewhat-humanoid race, were friendly and spoke Pelagian...sort of. Bumblebee was given a cup of low-grade energon and Carly a bowl of what appeared to be a bland barley soup.

The priests encouraged the pair and suggested finding work at one of the hotels. According to the head priest, the hotels often had employee housing available, which would give them somewhere to stay. And while the work hours would be long and hard, they could at least earn wages to buy food and send a message home. It would be a start.

Before leaving the temple, they were encouraged to seek the blessing of Tning the Merciful, and were led into the main room. The idol of Tning wore the universal smile of benevolence upon his face, and for a moment the priests prostrated themselves before his image and chanted and put their hands upon the two homeless aliens. And then the mech and the human were sent on their way. By now it was well into the planet's night and most of the shops and local businesses were closing up.

"Let's get some sleep and we'll try again when it's daylight, shall we?" suggested Carly. She'd been fighting not to yawn at the temple.

Bumblebee agreed, and the two debated where to find shelter for the night. They were afraid to sleep out in the wilderness for fear of being attacked by something like the giant insect that had grabbed Carly that morning. They didn't want to arouse the suspicions of the police or any security guards, so they decided not to camp out at the Spaceport. But they found a parking lot for a cluster of restaurants that appeared as safe as anything to tuck down in. Carly got out her sleeping bag and arranged herself in it across Bumblebee's two seats, tucking her head inside to get it out of the light.

"Goodnight, Carly," Bumblebee said softly. "Tomorrow we'll look for work at one of the hotels."

"I guess we'll have to. I don't want to spend the rest of my life here."

"It's not where either of us belong," he said softly. "But we'll get home. And until then I'll look after you."

"You have been already," she reminded him.

The Volkswagen chuckled. "I know." He sighed, settling a little lower on his tires. "I wasn't kidding about that promise to Spike. He's very thoughtful of his friends, and he cares a lot about you. I assured him that you were smart and independent and could take care of yourself, but he insisted anyway. So I did promise, and told him I would do my best, should that time ever come."

"Thank you, Bumblebee," she said, giving his pink seat a little hug. "Sometimes he reminds me a lot more of an Autobot than a human. You've all corrupted his way of thinking."

To this statement Bumblebee laughed. "He is at an impressionable age."

She snuggled down a little more comfortably against the seats, making a pillow of the hand towel she'd brought with her.

"Carly?"

"Yes?"

"Reach under my seat. There are some exposed cables there. Would...would you just put your hand on them? Just for a while? While we fall asleep?" he asked somewhat sheepishly.

She smiled understandingly. "Of course." Even if he was the one supposed to be taking care of her, he needed to know that he wasn't alone. And even if he wouldn't admit to being worried, he apparently was if he'd asked for this level of connection. Carly reached under the seat and found the exposed bundle as described...power cables, transfluid lines, neural lines. Gently she spread her hand and pushed her fingertips into them, at which the mech gave a slight shudder. And it was like this that they both dropped off into recharge.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Stung continues in Chapter 3: "Just Be Glad to Be Here"**

Brawn makes contact with the locals. Carly and Bumblebee get a hotel room...yes, they really do. Literally. And they sleep together. Really. And it's only Chapter 3! I love the way you can play with English language like this.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Please leave a review or a comment; or send me a PM if you'd like to chat. I do answer my PM's and most reviews.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	3. Just Be Glad to Be Here

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 3: Just Be Glad to Be Here**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Don't think about all those things you fear**

**Just be glad to be here**

**Just be glad to be here**

**-Lyrics to "Hayling" by FC Kahuna**

-o-o-o-o-o-

The end of the day meal had ended up as most of the end of the day meals had ever since Nuriyev's potatoes-into-vodka experiment had proved successful.

Khabarov was dancing about the table with a glass in one hand and his cap in the other. Tsiolkovsky was crying into his drink over reminiscences of the war. Nuriyev's hand was secretly doing obscene things to Rabinovitch under the table while her boyfriend tried his best to maintain his composure. Dyatlov was trying with little success to do another Sudoku puzzle while Pankin leaned over his shoulder and offered little help. It was all very typical.

But what happened next was completely atypical.

There came a resounding knock at the main door of the station's central module.

"The Hell?!" Tsiolkovsky exclaimed.

Dyatlov waved his hand at Khabarov, who was already on his way to turn down the music.

The six Russians sat frozen, listening.

Half a minute later the knock came again...a cheerful knock that one would expect of a neighbor or a visiting relative.

Except that there were no neighbors. And relatives certainly wouldn't be calling. Not here. Not even the more adventurous ones. Not on the Moon. Their closest neighbors were aboard the ISS...or the Earth, depending on where the International Space Station was currently in orbit.

When the knock came a third time, Dyatlov bolted for the control room and turned the main monitor's feed to that of the main entrance camera. The others, all stumbling in behind him, stared in disbelief. Standing outside the main door was a very large humanoid figure with an orange torso and olive-drab limbs. He was as tall as man and a half, and gleamed of metal. Angling the camera for a better view, the figure suddenly looked toward the movement, and the six cosmonauts could see its steely face clearer. "A...a r-robot!" Pankin stammered.

"It's at our door!"

"It's one of those...those-those..."

"An Autobot," said Dyatlov as the camera panned over to catch the red emblem on its chest.

The robot smiled and waved at the camera. And then a radio message suddenly erupted from the communications console. "Hello! May I come in?" asked the voice in textbook Russian. "I'd like to use your telephone please."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee humbly asked to meet with the hotel manager, having seen the "help wanted" sign in the entryway of the hotel. The woman at the desk, a large thick-necked alien of brown skin and six eyes, called into the room behind her, from which another of her race emerged.

"We're looking for work," explained Bumblebee, putting on an enthusiastic smile and hoping that his translation module sounded trustworthy and hardworking. "The priests at the temple of Tning the Merciful suggested trying here. They said it was a nice place." While the priests had not actually suggested this hotel in particular, they had suggested the area. It wouldn't hurt to mention a good word had been passed along.

The alien leaned forward over the desk to look at Carly, the top of whose head was all he could see. "What races are you?" he asked curiously.

"Cybertronian and human."

"Never heard of them. How'd you end up here?"

"Not quite sure. Some kind of accident. And I've found my credits are no good here, so we need to earn some money to feed ourselves and get passage home."

"I see," he said, not looking all that enthusiastic about the applicants. He leaned forward to look at Carly again. "Can she speak?"

"Yes, but she doesn't know any of the local languages used."

The manager didn't look pleased at that. "That's a shame. She's nice-looking, but the language thing...and so small too. What languages are _you_ programmed with?"

"I'm set with the major fifty for the seventh octant of the galaxy, and the top twenty for her planet," he said hopefully. "I've been able to read about half of the signs in Hax Horobis here."

"And what is your function?" he asked.

"Domestic service," Bumblebee lied, knowing that "scout" or "spy" would be more likely to earn him a laugh rather than employment.

"And her skills?"

"She's a student of cybernetics."

"A student. Hmmm...well..."

He looked them up and down again. Bumblebee crossed his fingers, a human custom he'd picked up from Spike.

"Well, I can take you two on a trial basis. I'll fuel and house you for a week while we see if you can undertake any of the work here. And if you do work out, I'll see about a salary."

"Thank you. Thank you very much. We don't have anywhere to go, so that will be a big help."

"I figured. Follow me."

"Carly! He'll take us!" grinned Bumblebee, grabbing happily for her hands. "It's not great, but he'll give us a trial to see how well we work out here."

"Oh wonderful!" cried Carly. She'd been unable to follow the conversation, the bouncing and punctuated language being impossible to follow, and so had just stood there trying to look pleasant.

"He won't pay us at first, but he'll give us a place to stay and food and fuel."

"That's better than nothing."

-o-o-o-o-o-

The Garden Paradise Hotel did indeed contain a garden paradise. The large hotel, some three stories tall, centered around an extensive garden courtyard, the doors to the rooms facing onto it. The lowest level contained a few guest rooms, most of the level being used for the kitchen and restaurant and other services. The courtyard itself was well planted with trees, flowers, and ornamental grasses, giving the place the look of a botanic garden. Gauzy screens hung above the courtyard and created a partial shade that took the edge off of the harsh sunlight, but in turn gave everything something of a "soft focus" effect. Hound would love this place, Bumblebee decided. Lately, the olive drab mech had been spending a lot of time in the Central City Botanical Gardens, and had even made friends with some of the gardeners and staff there.

The manager put them to work immediately with some of the other employees. Carly was taken to the kitchen where she was assigned the task of washing dishes, helping in the kitchen, and delivering food to the guests of the hotel. And Bumblebee found himself assigned to the open-air baths at the center of the garden, screened off from view by a wall of dark-red foliage and tall ferns. His job would be to bathe guests, dry them off, and tend to any of their needs while they were in the bath area. "At least the pools and the garden are pretty," he sighed to himself on learning what his duties would be. Thankfully Carly hadn't been given his job.

Bumblebee was introduced to his supervisor—a faceless transparent blob-like alien who claimed to be female (not that there was anything he recognized as female on or inside her body), who began to teach him the ropes right away. "Well we can be busy here most anytime of the day," Racki said. "This is morning shift, and it's the second busiest. Afternoon shift isn't bad. Evening shift gets crazy sometimes. Night shift is pretty quiet but usually steady with the nocturnals or late arrivals. Most of the hotel guests are either crews from the ships that land here, or tour groups on Horobis to see the Grand Canyon. And since Hax Horobis is the only large-scale spaceport on the Tabbilli Run, everyone stops here for refueling and supplies."

"I see," he said, looking up a moment from where she had started him on folding the towels that had just been delivered from the laundry room.

"So we get all types of guests...just about every race in the galaxy. A lot of them come stay here at the hotels just to get off of their ships. And we're popular because of the garden. It's a wonderful change from being aboard a spacecraft, and sometimes a bit of home."

At that moment a large robot walked into the bath area, and Racki waved at him. For a moment Bumblebee tensed, wondering if he was a Decepticon. There was something about his dark blue plating and somewhat sinister build that suggested it. But not seeing any Decepticon symbols on the armor he relaxed. The only marks on his body were a few bold yellow stripes and a white emblem that looked like a seven-pointed star. Racki oozed over to him, greeting him with an enveloping hug and a cheerful voice. And then she led him with a pseudopod over to the shower. "Bumblebee, you're in luck!" she called to the Autobot.

"Yes, ma'm?"

"This is CG-177, one of our regulars here. He'll be your first."

Bumblebee stood at attention. At least another mech would be sympathetic to what would probably be an awkward first attempt at bathing a hotel guest. "All right. I'll do my best."

The large, dark mech nodded.

Racki guided Bumblebee through the washing process, from the shower to scrubbing to rinsing to assisting the guest into an appropriately heated soaking pool. And then she showed Bumblebee where refreshments were kept at her station. From her cupboard she withdrew what appeared to be a sphere of energon and took it over to the dark mech, and then sat with him, chatting jovially while he drank it. Bumblebee busied himself with mopping up some of the tiles around the bath area.

Bumblebee was pleased. For a first attempt, he felt that he'd done well. But then again, CG-177 was a robot—something he was familiar with. He knew how to handle servos and joints and plating. It was the organic creatures that he knew would be the challenge. And when the mech rose from the soaking pool and allowed himself to drain, Bumblebee hurried over with a pair of towels and carefully patted him down after he'd drained. "Thank you," CG-177 said in his tinny yet pleasant voice. "Keep that up and you'll do well here."

Bumblebee nodded quickly, and took the damp towels back to the laundry hamper.

"Nice job," complimented Racki, coming back over as the dark mech departed. "Let me show you how to add services to a guest's bill." She led the way back to her station and brought up a computer screen. "One bath is included in the basic nightly fee, and they'll give you a ticket like this one when they come in." She showed him the red plastic card CG-177 had handed her when he'd arrived. "It's got their room number and guest information on it. But drinks and any additional services aren't included, so we add them here." She pulled up a menu on the screen. "It's a pretty basic menu to use. You'll get used to it quickly." She then pulled up a customer identification window, followed by a service items window, and tapped on the entry for energon twice. "There...two standard spheres of energon added to his bill."

"Two? But you only brought him one."

She chuckled. "He wanted you to have one too. A first day good-luck tip." Racki opened her cupboard, fetched out another sphere, and handed it to him. "You can drink it now if you want, but don't let anyone see you."

Bumblebee took a few sips out of it, and then set the remainder into his subspace storage for later. It had a bit of different taste to it than the Earth distillates he'd become accustomed to, but it was pleasant and he could feel the charge settling nicely into his tank.

Through the rest of his shift, he followed Racki's instructions and worked with a variety of guests, quickly learning his new job. Occasionally he'd catch a glimpse of Carly up on the walkways, dressed in a uniform and either carrying a large covered tray or pushing a cart that held several trays. They'd exchange a wave and a smile and at one point they were even able to meet for a few moments.

"How's it going?" Carly asked the mech.

"Very well. Apparently our shifts should be over in about one and a half Earth-hours."

"Good. Because I'm worn out," she sighed. "It's been hard, but I've learned what Pelagian numbers look like so I can make room deliveries, and I've just about got washing dishes down." She looked at her hands. "I'm hoping I can find some lotion or something to put on them. They're getting chapped already."

"We'll find something," Bumblebee smiled.

"How's your job?" she asked.

"Not bad, if you don't mind looking at wet, naked aliens."

Carly snorted a laugh, completely amused.

And when the end of his shift came, the manager who'd talked to them earlier came out and talked to Racki about the robot, and was pleased to hear of her trainee's excellent progress. Apparently the report for Carly wasn't so good, but the manager took it with a grain of salt, explaining to the head of the kitchen that the girl was not stupid; just new to the planet and didn't speak his language.

The manager then took them to a room toward the back of the lower floor and unlocked it for them. ''Here's where you and the girl will stay. There's bedding in the closet, and the employee wash room is the red door down the hallway. Your next shift will begin at 30:00, so report to your stations then.

Bumblebee thanked him again for giving them a trial opportunity.

The manager nodded, gave them some keys, and departed.

Carly opened the closet, and finding a large, thin mattress there, she dragged it out to the middle of the floor and then began dressing it with the sheets also found in the closet. Bumblebee repeated the manager's message in English for her, and then began pulling things out of subspace and placing them on the low shelf underneath the long glass block window.

"It's not much of a room," Carly said. "I saw inside some of the rooms upstairs and there were some fancy ones. The third floor is where all the rich guests stay."

"It's somewhere safe to sleep, and we're fed."

"Yes. I'm so glad we have that. And no offense, but it will be more comfortable than sleeping across your seats."

"And we have each other. I keep wondering what happened to the rest of the team."

"I do too," she sighed, trying not to smile too hard. Being with Bumblebee was indeed good fortune. Perhaps Spike had ended up stuck somewhere with that notorious whiner Huffer, which would probably be about as bad as getting dumped in deep space.

She surveyed the things Bumblebee had set onto the shelf—Spike's duffel, her little suitcase, their cooler, four gallon-jugs of water, a small sack of apples and oranges, a two-liter bottle of store-brand cola, a jar of peanuts, a lavender pair of pajamas, and two sleeping bags. She was amazed that Bumblebee could stuff such a surprising amount into his subspace compartments. This was the gear she and Spike had packed on planning for a week on Cybertron.

She opened her suitcase and took out her pajamas. As for the rest, she had a change of clothing, a second bra, clean socks and panties for the week, and a light jacket. Spike probably had packed the same, minus the pajamas. As she'd learned earlier this summer, he preferred to sleep in a tee-shirt and his tighty-whities. "Real men don't wear pajamas," he'd stated. It must have been something he'd picked up when working with his dad on the oil rig.

Carly slipped off her shoes and discreetly changed into her pajamas. "There's only one mattress so I guess we're sharing a bed."

"I promise not to steal the covers," Bumblebee giggled. How many times had he woken to find her chastising Spike for that offense?

"I would go take a bath tonight, but I'm just so worn out."

"I've been taking baths all day. I get pretty wet cleaning off the hotel guests, and they splash me sometimes from the soaking pools. It's all friendly though. Racki, my supervisor, splashes me too. It's funny that's her name, since she runs the hotel washrack essentially. I don't know what kind of alien she is, but you can look right through her and see what I guess are her organs. She doesn't have a face...just a mouth. But she tells great stories and flirts with most of the patrons."

Carly chuckled and lay down on the mattress, pulling the sheet over herself. "You'll have to introduce me sometime." Bumblebee took a moment to tidy his things before lying down next to her. "I've set my chronometer to local time, so I'll watch the time for us. It looks like we start work in just under thirteen Earth hours."

"Thanks 'Bee," she said.

"I promised I'd look after you."

They settled into the mattress and made themselves comfortable. And it was then, after she'd been lying still for a moment that a small whimper escaped Carly's throat. He thought nothing of it until it was followed by a louder one with an unmistakable sound of crying. "Carly...what's wrong?" Bumblebee asked softly. "Is your arm hurting you?"

"No. Not my arm." Suddenly she rolled over and grabbed his hand, hugging it tightly to her chest. "I'm sorry, 'Bee, but I'm just so worried. About us and what's going to happen. What if we can't get back to Earth or Cybertron? And what about the others who were in the same transport? Where did they end up? And what if things go badly for us here? Someone might take advantage of us or I might catch some horrible disease, and what if you get broken or something? And what about Spike? I'll bet he's worried sick about me...if he's still alive. The space bridge could have dumped him anywhere."

Bumblebee reached his other hand around the girl, resting it against her back. "I know, Carly," he whispered. "I'm worried too. But we'll get home. I will do everything I can to take care of us and get us home. That's all I can do right now."

"I'm sorry to be so whiny and helpless. You know it's not like me, but I can't help myself."

He stroked her hair soothingly. "You're tired, and we've had a rough few days. Get some sleep and everything will seem a little better in the morning."

She continued to sob against his arm until she drifted off to sleep, Bumblebee lying next to her feeling almost as helpless.

Bumblebee settled again but did not release her. Her worries were valid ones. They were far from home, cut off and without finances or friends. But if they could make their jobs work and earn a little money, at least they could send a message home, and after a while, with a bit more money, they could book passage home aboard one of the space-going ships. It was a slow, boring plan, but it would work.

Or perhaps back on the Ark they'd been able to track the actions of the space bridge and knew where the lost passengers could be found. Perhaps Optimus was already working on some kind of rescue.

He thought about Smokescreen and wondered how his lover would be taking the news that he'd been lost to the stars. He would be upset, but not despairing—he knew how cruel fate could be, and could roll with the punches. Early heartbreaks had made him much more resilient to loss. The red and blue mech would probably grieve for a month, mope for another couple, and then slide right into some other mech's berth, probably claiming a good hard interface would soothe his hurting spark. Cliffjumper would mourn but would not hurt for long. Beachcomber probably wouldn't even think much about it until he hit one of his 'blue moods,' at which point he'd probably fall into an even deeper depression.

Bumblebee sighed. All things considered, what had happened to them was really very minor given all the possibilities. They were alive, sheltered, fed, and together. And save for a Carly's bruised arm, they were in good repair. He'd been in far, far worse situations before. This was...this was just a forced vacation. They would be away a while, but in time they would be able to return. Life would go on as before.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Stung continues in Chapter 4: "Surprises"**

One day he's a lost and penniless mech. The next day he's got a job, a place to live, and a gorgeous alien girlfriend. Fate has dealt a strange hand to Bumblebee. And Brawn is captured by the Russians and held for ransom!

-o-o-o-o-o-

Thank you for reading! Feedback and communication is appreciated by any author. Send me a PM if you'd like.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

**Chapter Title -** The title is taken from this beautiful, surreal song by F.C. Hayling, and it really reflects the mood of the whole story. As it's mentioned, things could be a lot worse for Bumblee and Carly. And we've yet to find out what's happened to Skids and Jazz. As far as we know, things will be okay for Brawn, Spike, and Huffer. Yes, in some ways it's a bit of a Panglossian outlook on the events, but in this case, accepting what has happened is all right. Life can suck at times, but it can always suck a lot worse.

**Moonbase Tranquility One** – I imagined something like this as a typical off-world research station you'd see in any sci-fi television show or movie. Buncha guys stuck in some remote place for a few months, doing their jobs and trying to stay sane despite the isolation. The whole idea of an alien robot suddenly showing up at the door is just the transposition of someone breaking down on a country road, hiking to a farmhouse, and asking to borrow their telephone to call for help.

**Tning the Merciful** – A generic benevolent alien god created for this story...arch nemesis of the Flash Gordon villain "Ming the Merciless."

**Carly's language issue** – Ever wonder about the experience of immigrants to the USA looking for work. Having worked in restaurants and in a hotel, and living in a town where there is a major summer influx of immigrant workers, this story somewhat reflects that. Though this time it's the perfect, highly educated white girl who is the stranger in a strange land. You'll think about immigrant workers in a new light after this.

**The Garden Paradise Hotel** – Created from a combination of things...the Mexican and Caribbean resorts I've stayed at, the Japanese Ryokans I've stayed at, and the traditional Turkish baths I hope to experience some day.

**Racki** – I've taken some of the classic monsters of Sci-fi and made them into ordinary citizens. Racki's a classic blob of plasma creature. Just wait until Carly meets Vaallo in Chapter 5! Tentacle non-rape! Some of you might be disappointed.

**Pelagian** – the language of those who travel the stars. Some of you will recognize the word as meaning something else...and will find my choice for this intra-galactic Esperanza appropriate.

**Huffer** – I originally was going to have Brawn and Spike together, but decided to have Brawn materialize on the Moon, and I already had plans for Jazz and Skids, which meant that Huffer was the one to end up on Cybertron.

**There Is Only One Bed** – So cliché! So fanfic cliché! But I'm not using it as a plot device to get them together. It's just how the minimalist rooms for the hotel workers are. Though I do use it for a bit of humor regarding the fact that Carly and Spike have been sharing a bed, occasionally fighting over the covers. Besides things get much more un-modest in the next chapter on their first trip to the workers' baths...which are basically an un-luxurious version of where Bumblebee now works. Besides, what's sharing a bed when Carly climbs into Bumblebee for a ride?

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	4. Surprises

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 4: Surprises**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Fergalicious definitionMake them boys go loco  
>They want my treasure so they get their pleasures from my photo.<br>You could see me, you can't squeeze me.  
>I ain't easy, I ain't sleazy.<br>I got reasons why I tease 'em.  
>Boys just come and go like seasons.<strong>

**Fergalicious (so delicious)**  
><strong>But I ain't promiscuous.<strong>  
><strong>And if you were suspicious,<strong>  
><strong>All that sh** is fictitious.<strong>  
><strong>I blow kisses (mwah!)<strong>  
><strong>That puts them boys on rock, rock.<strong>  
><strong>And they be lining down the block just to watch what I got<strong>

**So delicious**

**Lyrics from "Fergalicious" by Fergie**

-o-o-o-o-o-

The Autobots gathered around Teletraan One, gasping at the scene shown. A man in a jumpsuit stood before the camera. Behind him were two women and three men dressed the same way, two of them armed, holding what appeared to be high powered rifles.. A Russian flag hung on the wall behind them.

"Commander Optimus Prime of the Autobots on Earth?" asked the man at the camera.

"Yes?"

"I am Captain Yuri Dyatlov of Moonbase Tranquility One. One of your men was caught spying on us. We have captured him."

"Brawn!" Prime gasped as the captain stepped aside to reveal one of the lost members of the mission to Cybertron. Brawn sat on the floor of what looked to be a laboratory, heavy cables binding him head to foot. The warrior's head picked up at hearing his name.

"Brawn!? Can you hear me? Are you all right?" Optimus asked anxiously.

"I'm fine, Prime." He vented a sigh. "Sorry. Somehow I ended up on the Moon and...got captured when I was trying to find a way to contact you."

Dyatlov stepped into the shot again. "You may come and get your spy, but...there is a ransom for him."

"A ransom? I will contact the Russian Consul in San Francisco..."

"We are operating independently of the Russian State. You will not contact the consul or anyone else!" Captain Dyatlov snapped aggressively.

"All right. Please tell me what it is you wish." Optimus glanced over to another console where Prowl and Red Alert were hurriedly pulling up any information they could find on Moonbase Tranquility One and its crew. They could come in meek and humble, following the orders of the hostage takers, but go out with guns blazing once they could safely turn the situation to their advantage.

"Our demands are as follows. If you wish to have your spy back, you must deliver the following to us here on the Moon." Dyatlov picked up a handwritten list and began to read. "Forty pounds of apples. Twenty pounds of oranges. Ten pounds of bananas. Four heads of green cabbage. Two heads of red cabbage. Five loaves of dark rye bread and five loaves of light rye bread."

Some of the Autobots were looking about at each other as the items were read off and the oddity of the ransom was sinking in. They'd been threatened before, the captors demanding weapons and technology usually. But these independent Russians on the Moon were wanting...food?

"Twelve pounds of good coffee, pre-ground. One dozen ribeye steaks, frozen. Forty pounds of potatoes. Ten pounds of carrots. Three dozen eggs. One case of Jack Daniels whiskey. One case of Stolichnaya vodka. One bottle of vanilla extract. Thirty-six rolls of soft toilet paper. One bottle of floral scented shampoo."

Captain Dyatlov looked up from his list and glared at the Autobots. "Deliver these things within the week and we will return your man to you unharmed," he said with all seriousness.

Some of the Autobots were trying not to laugh, having realized what was happening. Tracks was stifling himself so hard he was shaking.

"And those are..._all_ of your demands?" Optimus asked with deep concern. There hadn't even been a request for money or communications equipment.

Blaster could no longer contain himself. "That's not a ransom demand," he chortled. "That's a grocery list."

The Russian captain allowed himself a smirk.

"A grocery list?"

"They want some fresh food up there. Haven't you paid any attention to what the humans eat?"

The comedy of the situation suddenly dawned on Optimus. The others were all chortling around him. And the cosmonauts on the Moon were all giggling in the background along with Brawn, who rose to his feet and wriggled out of the cables that were supposedly restraining him. He came forward and leaned into the camera behind Dyatlov. "These guys are great. I asked what they could do in exchange for getting a message back to the Ark, and they wanted some fresh fruit brought up. It sorta went from there."

"I see," said Optimus, allowing himself a bit of a chuckle. "Well I'll send someone into town to get what they want, and we'll send Jetfire up to make the exchange."

"Thank you, Prime."

The captain saluted. "Thank you very much, Optimus Prime. We have been up here a while, and will be here another three months. We will much appreciate this."

"Prime, any idea of how I ended up here?" asked Brawn, switching from Russian to Cybertronian.

"We aren't completely sure. Wheeljack, Perceptor, and Grapple have been working on the problem for the past two days. It seems that there was some malfunction in the space bridge, and the team was scattered," the Autobot leader answered back in the same.

"Have the others been found?"

"Well, Huffer and Spike made it to Cybertron, and are proceeding with the mission. We've sent Cosmos after them since they'll need a ride home. With your call, we've now accounted for three out of the seven members of the team that went. The whereabouts of Jazz, Skids, Carly, and Bumblebee are still unknown."

"I see," said Brawn flatly.

"But we're working on it, and we'll have you back soon enough."

"Prime, if you manage to locate any of the others, please call me here."

"Will do. Optimus Prime out."

"So what was that about?" asked Sparkplug, having been left out of most of the exchange by the languages involved. He'd gotten that Brawn had been captured by Russians somewhere, but apparently it had been a joke.

Optimus straightened and shook off his worried look. "Sparkplug, I have a mission for you in Central City."

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly woke to the sounds of sex from the room next to theirs—happy giggles and enthusiastic moaning. And closer than the sounds of the lovemaking, she could hear soft clicking and beeping and the occasional ping of computer windows opening and closing. She sat up and found Bumblebee awake from recharging as well. He sat next to her on the mattress, his hands busy at a data pad. "Good morning," he said cheerfully as she yawned. "Well, good evening, actually. It seems to be sunset here."

There came a loud moan followed by some exclamations in an alien language from the room next door.

"Well I see they have sex on this planet as well," she commented.

"Sounds like you and Spike on a good night. How did you sleep?" he asked.

Carly blushed at the robot's commentary. "Like the dead."

"Feeling any better?"

"I don't know yet. I'll let you know when I've had some coffee."

"Want me to run down to Starbucks and get you a latte? I'm sure they've conquered this side of the galaxy as well."

Carly giggled. "I could use something to drink. I'm sure I'll be hungry soon too. They gave me food in the kitchen yesterday, but I was afraid to eat much of it. I didn't recognize anything, but I decided to risk some of the vegetable-looking things, and they don't seem to have poisoned me. But Thank goodness for all those sandwiches we brought along. Did you get any sort of fuel?"

"They have energon here, plenty of it. There was this robot in for a bath, and he gave me some energon since I was new. It comes in spheres here instead of cubes."

"He probably thought you were cute."

"I think he was just being nice. I don't know what planet he was from. Definitely not Cybertron though. He was built very differently."

The rhythm of the couple next door seemed to be picking up speed, and the volume of the moaning had increased.

"Speaking of bath...maybe we should go try to find that one down the hall," Carly suggested, picking up her toiletries kit. Her 'maybe' was actually a command to herself, beginning to feel rather awkward about the noise from the neighbors. Surely she and Spike hadn't been that vocal, had they?

Taking their keys, they found the bath, a single room much like a spartan version of Bumblebee's work area. "I guess there's no men's side or women's side," Carly decided aloud.

She looked at Bumblebee for a moment, and then walked over to one of the cubbies that appeared to be for putting one's things into.

"Would you like me to leave? I can come back and wash up afterward," he offered, knowing human etiquette regarding bathing.

"Well, anyone else could come in. I'm assuming all the employees living here have keys. And given the nature of your new job I suppose there's no reason to be modest around you now," she mused.

"I guess not. Besides, I'm naked all the time."

This made her giggle again. "I've never thought of it that way, but I guess you are. Or do you just sleep in your armor?" She took off her pajamas and moved to one of the two shower heads that hung from the ceiling. And then she stared at the control unit on the wall, arms akimbo, trying to make sense of it.

"Here, I'll turn it on for you," said Bumblebee, reaching for it.

He expertly worked the controls, having learned them well from his training the day before, and a shower of hot water fell from above.

"I should just let you wash me," she laughed, grabbing for her soap. "Give you some more practice."

"Ah...I don't know if I should. What would I tell Spike?"

"Tell him you had your hands all over his wet and naked girlfriend...just like you had your hands over every guest at the hotel."

Bumblebee was a bit startled, but then realized she was teasing. "I suppose I could use a bit more practice, especially since you're in the size range of some of the aliens here."

And so he washed Carly, carefully soaping her from throat to ankle, gently shampooing her bright blond hair, then bending and twisting her beneath the showerhead to remove all the suds in the rinse phase. At each step he was careful around her bruised arm, the marks now turning from red to bluish purple. And then he guided her to the hot soaking bath at the side of the room and held her hand while she stepped in. "Now I'm supposed to offer you a drink or mention that there is a masseuse on the premises."

"I'll have both please," she said slowly, sinking neck-deep into the water.

Bumblebee was about to step into the shower himself when the door opened and another hotel worker came in. This was one of the reptilian Taliseet people that seemed to make up about half of the population here at Hax Horobis, and judging by the large dewy eyes and fine features, this one was female, confirmed when her soft, musical voice greeted them.

Bumblebee answered back in Pelagian, at which she smiled. "You're the new washbot, aren't you? Working for Racki, right?"

"Yes. I just started yesterday."

"Racki said there was a bright yellow robot with a friendly face working the baths now. She liked you a lot," said the lizardess. She walked up to Bumblebee and extended her palm face up.

Racki had taught him the local greeting customs, and so Bumblebee put his hand face down atop hers. "My name's Bumblebee, and this is my friend Carly," he said, gesturing at the human in the bath. Carly waved back when the lizardess nodded at her.

"I'm Vashi," she said. "A hostess here." And then she winked flirtatiously at Bumblebee. "Since you're the new washbot, how about a freebie?"

"You...want me to wash you?"

"You've got it," she said with a slow blink and a come-hither smile. She shed the robe she was wearing and walked over to stand beneath one of the showers, and then held out her personal bottle of soap toward him.

Bumblebee obliged her, thankful that Racki had shown him how to bathe one of her species the shift before. And apparently he was doing well, for she purred and smiled the whole time he was rubbing her long fingers and splaying the delicate leathery fins that angled off of her. "Your kind is so beautiful," Bumblebee told her admiringly, gently working the soap from her body. Even Carly had to admit she was beautiful. Her base color seemed to be beige, but her fine scales ran a rowdy gamut of colors from red to rust to yellow to white. The skin between the spines of her fins was an oxblood red. The kitchen boss was also of the same reptilian race, but he was nowhere near as colorful or as lovely as she was. He was a dirty dark green with heavy scales and tattered fins.

"Thank you," she said with a slow blink of her large eyes. "And don't tell anyone else you did me for free, or else they'll all expect the same."

After he finished rinsing Vashi off, she walked over to the tub Carly was soaking in and climbed in beside her. "Carly, was it? What species are you? I've not seen your kind before. Similar, but not the same."

Carly looked to Bumblebee. "What did she say?"

"She was just asking what species you were." And then he changed tongues. "Vashi, she doesn't speak any of the local languages. We're quite a long ways from home."

"Oh, I see." And then she took Carly's chin in hand and gently turned her face toward the light.

"'Bee...?" Carly gasped.

"It's okay. She's nice. She's a 'hostess' here, whatever that is." He turned to Vashi again. "She's a human from the planet Earth."

"I've never heard of it, but your friend is pretty," Vashi decided "Shame about the language thing. I guess that's why they gave her a kitchen job."

"Yep. She said she was having a hard time with it too. I wish I could help her out, but I'm stuck at the baths in the courtyard."

"The kitchen boss is tough to work for. But tell you what, Bumblebee." She released Carly and leaned out toward the mech. "I'll help her out today, when I can, if you'll give me another freebie."

"Would you?" Bumblebee asked excitedly. Apparently being a washbot had some worth. Maybe it wasn't as lowly of a job as he'd previously thought.

Vashi blinked seductively at him. "Of course. It's nice to have some help getting my cosmetics off after a shift."

-o-o-o-o-o-

After Bumblebee washed himself, he and Carly headed back to their room, Vashi pointedly saying a personal goodbye to the mech.

"If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was flirting with you," said Carly.

"Really? You think so?"

"Bumblebee you really are clueless. How long have you been alive?"

The Autobot rolled up the mattress and put it back into the closet. "I'm not that naïve. I just didn't think an organic creature I'd just met would be interested in a robot right off the bat."

Carly giggled. "Well lets go to the kitchen and find something to eat before work," she said, looking up at the time on the clock. "That's what I'm interested in. Maybe you can help me figure out what's edible and what's not."

-o-o-o-o-o-

The shift went well it seemed, Bumblebee and Carly working hard at their trial jobs. As beautiful as the garden had looked during the daylight hours, it seemed magical at night. The exotic flowers and plants were lit from below with multiple colored lights. Soft music played from speakers hidden about the area. Quiet as it had been during the day shift, it was doubly busy in the dark. The guests of the hotel came from their rooms to bathe and soak, and both Bumblebee and Racki were busy at the showers, a short line even forming for a while.

Bumblebee didn't mind the hard work, and he did fairly well. Most of the guests were understanding of his occasional slip-ups, Racki kindly letting them know that he was quite new to the job. And he did catch sight of Carly up on the walkways in front of the rooms, and a few times he spotted Vashi with her. How he'd recognized the lizardess he wasn't sure, for while he'd only seen her naked in the bath, she was now robed in layers of sheer cloth and wore an elaborate headdress of sparkling ornaments as well as plenty of other jewelry. The area around her eyes had been painted with black lines and purple eyeshadow. Some of the patterns in her scales had been enhanced with black and white paint, giving her and even more exotic appearance. There were three other ladies similarly attired and painted—other hostesses he presumed.

"You've got an eye for organics, I see," commented Racki when the rush finally died down and they could take a break together in the shack and sneak a little drink.

"Oh? Me? Well, Carly's my friend," he explained.

"I know that. But I've noticed you watching Vashi, the hostess, several times."

"Is there something wrong with that?" he asked sincerely. "We met her this morning in the employee bath. She was really nice to me."

Racki laughed and wrapped a huge transparent pseudopod around him. She was easily a head taller than he was when she drew her bulk up. "Nothing wrong at all. In fact that's what she wants. She wants people to look. But just watch out for her."

"Oh?" Bumblebee took his sphere of energon out of subspace and sipped at it.

"She's very sweet, but lets just say, too much candy is bad for you. She'll take advantage of you if you don't watch out. But that's how she is. She's a professional flirt and a consummate tease. That's how all the hostesses are."

"Should I stay away from her?"

Racki laughed, sipping at a bottle of some blue liquid, which pooled in the cavity behind her mouth before being drawn through suddenly visible veins throughout her body. "You don't have to, but don't give her anything you might want back"

"I'll try to remember that."

"And...Vashi...she seems to prefer mechs over her own kind, so don't be surprised if she gets rather 'personal' with you."

Bumblebee was stunned. "She prefers mechs?" He thought back to his washing of her in the bath before their shift, and of Carly's appraisal of Vashi's behavior. Had the hostess already selected him as a target?

Racki nodded. "And go ahead and enjoy every moment of it, but just don't expect it to last. And don't ever think you can make her stay."

Bumblebee took a gulp of energon and put the sphere away. A couple of guests had entered the baths. Smiling he went out to greet them. And past their heads on the top floor walkway he spotted Vashi, promenading arm in arm with a hotel guest. He tried to remember her nature later when Vashi came down to the baths with the same man and sat with him while he soaked in the tubs, talking and flirting with him as if he were the only man in the world. But when the guest was distracted, she gave Bumblebee was a tiny wave and a fleeting smile.

At the end of third shift, as the time on the clock approached 30:00, the manager appeared and again talked with the work supervisors. All was well at the baths, and he offered Bumblebee a position right then and there, telling him he'd have a contract drawn up before the robot's next shift. As for Carly, he still was unsure, but he decided to give her the rest of the week to prove herself.

"It's not fair," Carly whimpered once back in the privacy of their room. "The guy running the kitchens is crazy. He's always yelling at me in whatever language it is they speak here and I have no idea what they're saying. He wants this and he wants that and I don't have the dishes washed the moment they come back to the washing area, and then he gets mad that I'm not there washing dishes, but it's because I'm out making a delivery to one of the rooms," she ranted.

Bumblebee held her in his arms and rubbed her back as she spilled out her frustrations along with a torrent of tears. And when her venting finally ceased, she apologized to him and tried to wipe her face clean.

"It's okay. I'll have a contract tomorrow and we'll have some money coming in. And look..." He opened up a pocket beneath an armor plate and pulled out the contents, pressing it into her hands.

It was alien money, but recognizably money. Oblong coins of bronze, brass, and silver filled her palms. "I got some tips today," he said proudly. He poked the coins about in her hands, listing their denominations. "One jil. Two jil. Five jil. That big bronze one with the hole through the center is the prize. Ten jil. I estimate it's worth about twenty-five to thirty dollars. A rich old lady gave it to me. Racki said I should put it on a cord and tie it inside my armor for good luck. And that big dark blue robot was back again. He gave me another energon sphere, and I've not even finished the first. And they give me an energon ration here as well."

"That's wonderful," Carly said. "Maybe I should come work at the baths too."

"You're too small, to be honest. But maybe we could see about a different place for you. Maybe cleaning rooms or gardening."

"Anything would be better than having to work for Godzilla in the kitchens."

Bumblebee chuckled and kissed the top of her head. "You'll be fine. I promise."

"I found out what a hostess is too," she said on catching her breath. "There are some other hostesses too, besides Vashi. You can tell them by their clothes and all the makeup they wear. She and the others were in several of the rooms at different times, hanging out with guests. Socializing with them and dancing for them. Sometimes Vashi would have out this guitar-like instrument and be playing music. "

"Some sort of an entertainer then."

"Something like that. Kinda like a Japanese geisha I guess."

"That would explain her get up. She was really fancy-looking. Did she help you any tonight?"

"She did. She helped me deliver some of the meal trays, and if she was in the kitchen, she'd stop Godzilla from yelling at me. I think he's got a thing for her."

"Who wouldn't? She's so attractive..and that voice of hers. It's almost like she's singing when she talks to you. Well I'm glad she helped you out a bit. I had asked her if she would, when we were talking in the bath earlier."

"You asked her to?"

"I did. I told you I'd look after you." He also repeated Racki's warning about Vashi's particular personality quirk, which made Carly laugh.

At that moment a soft knock came at the door. Bumblebee rose and answered it, finding Vashi standing there in all her finery.

"Hello, Vashi," he said, holding out his palm to her.

"Speak of the Devil," Carly muttered.

The beautiful lizardess placed her hand onto his. "Bumblebee. Hello. I was about to head for the bath. Care to join me?"

He noted the seductive tone in her voice and Bumblebee suspected she was about to collect on her favor...or more. "All right. Let me just say goodnight to Carly. She's ready to go to bed."

"Of course. I'll meet you there," she said with a lingering blink of her heavily painted eyes and she turned and glided toward the workers' baths.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee unlocked the bath door and found the hostess underneath a shower head already, the robes and jewelry and headdress gone. A small music player sat on a shelf, perfuming the room with a gentle melody. "There you are, Bumblebee," she said as he entered. The way she rolled his name off of her tongue sent a charge of excitement through his chest.

"Yes...just tucking Carly down."

"She's a sweet girl. And you're so good to her."

"Do you still want me to wash you?" he asked, noting that her makeup had been completely removed and she was rinsing off.

"I guess I beat you to it," she said. "You'll have to make up for it another time. Why don't you let me do you? I can wash you instead."

"Really? Oh you don't have to." If they were going to play a game of exchanging favors, he didn't want to owe her too much.

"No, I insist. A freebie, since you gave me one earlier."

Bumblebee couldn't argue with that, and it would be nice to feel how someone else did it. Perhaps he'd learn a few tricks from that. "All right."

He joined her under the shower head and she filled a sponge with liquid soap. She was a head and a half taller than Carly, but still shorter than he was. And as she began to wash him, he decided to kneel down to allow her to more easily access his clavicular plates and head.

He decided that he was learning something from her, for she ran the sponge across him in tight circles that swirled over him in a predictable route, but just as a route had been decided, she would break away and take the direction elsewhere, leaving him surprised and wanting. It was teasing...not satisfying. He made a note to himself not to do that to the hotel guests. And then there was the way she rubbed soap up behind his sensor horns, almost as if she knew it would set him on edge—in a very distracting way. Another note to his list. And then when she pressed her lithe body against his back, her hands sliding over his chest plating from behind, he decided that would be a completely inappropriate way to handle a guest. And he was about to tell her so when the realization hit him that she was doing this intentionally, knowing full well how she was touching him.

Racki was right. She was a consummate tease.

"You've stopped moaning," Vashi said next.

"Moaning?"

"Maybe it wasn't moaning. Maybe more of a whimper. I can hear something in your chest too. There's something of a rumbling in there that wasn't rumbling when I started." The lizardess' hands went again for his sensor horns, but this time without soap.

Bumblebee suddenly felt flustered, realizing that he was heating up. He'd been concentrating so hard on studying her technique that he'd ignored the fact that she was stimulating him completely, somehow knowing just how to pleasure a mech's sensor net. And the way she was stroking his horns now and running her fine fingers over the supra-nasal ridges between them had him lighting up excitedly. "Um... Vashi," he gasped and staggered back to his feet, knowing that he needed to stop this now. Was this the 'personal' part of Racki's warning?

"Yes?" she said, looking up at him with her deep brown eyes. Her hands wrapped about his waist articulation affectionately holding him in place with her devious will.

"You...you can stop now," he forced himself to say, barely able to keep his concentration.

"Don't you like it?"

Words bounced about in his vocalizer. "No. I like it very much. Too much."

A smile of success broke across her perfect lips. "Good. I'm glad you've got _that kind_ of programming in you."

"Yes, I do. But you don't have to activate it," he said stepping away. "I don't want to cause any problems or start any trouble."

She pouted. "Don't you want me to? I'm terribly curious about you, Bumblebee. Or... don't you like flesh creatures? Most of the robots around here do. We're very open-minded about relationships." She came around to face him, sharing a quirky little smile with him.

Bumblebee stammered. "You... you mean, you want to... to interface with me?" He hadn't quite expected that degree of 'personal' in Racki's warning.

"Is that what you call it?" Her pout changed back to a smile again, and Bumblebee knew he was stumbling right into her seduction like an innocent into a trap. But what a tempting trap it was. Wasn't that how Smokescreen had caught him in the first place?

"Well, I guess not. It's that only when it's between mechs."

"What would you call it when it's between you and me?" Vashi reached up and draped her arms around his neck. "Tell me what you call it and I'll give it to you."

"I think we'd just call it sex."

"That works for me," she said with another of her slow, suggestive blinks.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Stung continues in Chapter 5: Tentacles **A strange plant-like alien comes to Carly's aid. Turns out he's not just any old green tentacle monster. Bumblebee discovers the reason he gets most whatever he wants. Bumblebee's getting it twice a day.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Thank you for reading! Feedback and communication is appreciated by any author. Send me a PM if you'd like.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

**Fergalicious – **I just love this song, and it suits Vashi perfectly. I was going to use "Sheila Ki Jawani" from the movie _Tees Maar Khan _originally, but it wasn't quite right...and then that final chapter of my first TF story "Pet Canary" appeared out of the ether and the song fell into place there.

**Moonbase Tranquility One** – The whole moonbase scenario just seems like...like Dr. Who is about to pop in at any moment.

**Starbucks** – Yes...they're everywhere. Even the Autobots noticed this about Earth.

**The Employee Bath** – Okay, one of my trademarks in my stories is that everyone ends up naked at some point (well, most everyone). There's a lot of nudity in this story, mostly thanks to Bumblebee's job.

**Chick Magnet** – Get used to it. Everyone wants a piece of Bumblebee in this story. Well, almost everyone. I did a list of all the pairings and referenced pairings in this story, and Bumblebee is by far the most active.

**Blinking** – Vashi doesn't wink. She blinks...slowly. Much sexier. Try it, ladies. Make them boys go loco.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	5. Tentacles

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 5: Tentacles**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Godzilla was yelling at Carly again, this time enough to bring her to tears. She crouched in the doorway of the kitchens sobbing, the spilled tray on the tiled floor in front of her, bleating "I'm sorry" over and over again in Taliseet as she tried to scoop up the mess to get it out of the traffic pattern. She'd picked up a few words in the past few days and was using them when she could. The day hadn't been going well to start with, what with Bumblebee disappearing with Vashi for long hours during the night and leaving her alone, the couple next door waking her up twice, the incident at the dishwashing station, and the accidental cut on her left hand. And now there was the dropped dinner tray.

But yelling wasn't enough apparently, for suddenly the kitchen boss came over, grabbed Carly by her uniform, and bodily flung her out the door. She stumbled out, trying to catch herself but tripping and ending up in a planter of thick vines. Closing her eyes tightly, she sniffled and wept, her face buried into the greenery. Behind her she could hear Godzilla continue to rant and curse.

This was it. She was being rejected. A degree from MIT and she couldn't even work a lousy kitchen job.

And then the planter she'd landed in began to curse back, the voice coming from the greenery next to her head. She opened her eyes and extracted herself, realizing bit by bit that she'd not ended up in one of the many planters about the courtyard, but had fallen into a guest—literally into him. He was about Bumblebee's car-mode size and appeared to be the result of some unholy gene-splicing experiment between an aloe vera plant and a serving of linguine. Two goggling eyes sat atop stalks and a mouth spoke from somewhere near her shoulder. And as the realization hit her, she backed away, going back to her mantra of "I'm sorry."

But before Carly could get too far, one of the creature's tentacles whipped out of the mass and wrapped about her, halting her retreat. Though its eyes were not on her. Instead it was glaring at Godzilla and speaking angrily and seemingly in her defense. But Godzilla was unmoved and he continued to berate her with much finger-pointing and slobbering.

And through it the plant-type alien seemed unphased, even when at one point in the exchange Godzilla drew himself up, crossed his arms over his chest and laughed in what might be the creature's face.

At which point the plant monster calmly produced a large set of what appeared to be gold bracelets from somewhere beneath his layer of tentacles, counting each pair as they were produced.

Godzilla's haughty shoulders drooped, and then his expression changed markedly. He apologized and retreated to the kitchens, seemingly humbled and even looking somewhat concerned.

Carly had hoped to just slip away from the situation, but the plant creature was not about to let her. He put the bracelets away, reeled his restraining tentacle back in, and looked her up and down, other tentacles slipping out of the body mass and straightening her uniform and dusting her off. He spoke gently to her and smoothed her hair like one would a child, even withdrawing a handkerchief from somewhere and wiping her face.

Carly knew she should be frightened—her body was on edge with all the adrenaline flowing through her veins and being held captive by something exceedingly alien. But her mind had focused on the alien's now gentle, comforting behavior. It had obviously spoken in her favor and was quite concerned with the situation, for now he spoke questioningly to her, soft soothing words bubbling from the mouth tucked amongst its appendages.

"I'm sorry," she said in Pelagian this time. "I didn't mean to fall into you. I hope you can forgive me," she continued in English. Hound had once told her that many plant-type aliens were psychic, and that communication with them only took a bit of sincerity.

The creature paused, and then its eyes brightened. "English! I thought you might be human," it said in the same with a touch of what seemed to be a French accent.

"You...you speak my language?" Carly choked.

"One of many. Now look, dear. Don't worry about your job. I know what happened and I'm going to speak to the manager here. I doubt he'll take kindly to someone tossing employees at the guests." The plant creature gave her a little encouraging pat. "And if that fellow gives you any more trouble, please let me know. I'll he here the next few days while my ship is being serviced."

Carly stood dumbstruck, but finally managed to squeak out a little "thank you."

"Please. Anything for an Earthling. What's your name?"

"Carly."

"You're a long way from home, Miss Carly. So please, if there is anything you need, ask for me. My name is Vaallo."

"Vaallo," she repeated. "That's all?"

"They know me at the front desk here. Now, be brave and go back to work and I think you'll have no trouble."

Vaallo winked a stalked eye at her and shambled off on short pedes toward the hotel offices, Carly staring in disbelief. Had that encounter really just happened?

As the plant had just instructed her, she went back into the kitchen, everyone stopping to look at her. Gathering her courage she went back to her station and began washing dishes again.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee came back to their room slightly before she did at the end of first shift and was most curious as to what had happened to her that day, having heard some of the rumors going about. He sat on their mattress, sipping a sphere of energon and listening intently to her story. "Your knight in shining armor," he said at the end of it.

"Shining? More like...rubbery. Okay. He was very kind to me. How was your day?"

"Same old same old. Though Vashi came by several times. She'll be coming by soon...wants to take me out somewhere. And we just got paychecks so I'm going to put mine into the bank account I opened."

"A paycheck? Wonderful!"

"Yes! One down...how many more to go?"

Carly sighed. "Who knows?" And then she gave Bumblebee one of those guilt-inducing looks. "You spend all your free time with Vashi now..."

"She is my girlfriend. Is there something wrong with that?"

Carly paused. Bumblebee was always so straightforward with everyone. "No. I guess not. I guess I just feel a bit left out."

"Oh..." The robot reached for her apologetically. "I'm sorry. I have been neglecting you. Well, how about tonight we'll go out after third shift. Go for a drive and see some of the local scenery in the moonlight or something. Maybe a picnic, like we used to do with Spike? With two moons out it's bright enough for that."

"I'd like that. It would be really nice." And then she sighed. "I miss him, 'Bee."

"Yeah," he agreed, putting his hand onto her shoulder. "I miss him too. And you were twice as close to him."

"I guess you could say that." A faint smile crossed her lips as she thought of how intimate she and Spike had become, once they finally got over their shyness with each other. The fact that Bumblebee and Cliffjumper were both egging them on had only sped up the situation. Over the summer they'd grown spoiled to each other's constant company, the two of them squeezing in as much togetherness as they could.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly went to sleep alone again, feeling lonely, and wondering what Bumblebee and Vashi were up to. She'd honestly hoped to fall asleep next to him...the place she felt safest these days. And while she wouldn't admit it, she was still shaking from the events of her shift. But no, he was out on one of his daily two dates with Vashi, letting her use him. How could he fall for that tease, knowing full well what she was? Admittedly most any man would probably fall victim to the same tricks... those dark beautiful eyes, the colorful scales, the wing-like fins, the musical voice, the carefree laughter. And when she dolled herself up for work she was just that...a desirable doll to be played with. And hadn't he mentioned something about a warning from Racki about her?

She'd been surprised at first to find that the Autobots had emotions and desires and appreciations, their being machines and all. As she came to know them better, she found their personalities complex and varied. After a while it no longer surprised her that they cared deeply for each other—having friends and lovers and loved ones. Though what continued to surprise her was that some dated outside of their own species. Powerglide had a thing for this beautiful human girl. And Seaspray was apparently pretty serious with some mermaid-humanoid-transformer on an alien planet. Tracks and that punk from New York were pretty much considered a couple, which made Spike a bit uncomfortable, wondering if the mechs thought he and Bumblebee were also a couple. There were rumors about Jazz and a different alien woman. Of course there were always rumors going around about most everyone aboard the Ark. Not even Optimus was immune. It was no wonder Bumblebee had an immediate attraction for the lizardess. She was just as social and brightly colored as he was.

At some point in the night, as before, Bumblebee returned, slightly damp from a recent shower and quietly humming a song she didn't recognize. He climbed onto the mattress beside her and put his hand on her shoulder before dropping into recharge, his systems all winding down into a soothing purr.

-o-o-o-o-o-

They woke for third shift, got dressed, and got a meal. And on reporting to the kitchen, Carly was sent to the laundry and given a different uniform. Apparently she'd been transferred.

Carly was overjoyed. No more Godzilla. No more strange alien meals on unwieldy trays. No more washing dishes. Instead she had miles and miles of bleached sheets and fluffy towels which never had any pathetic little complaints about how she held them or what language she spoke. Instead of the ranting of a lunatic kitchen manager there was only the slosh of the washing machines and the comforting steady rumble of the dryers. Later that day, as she delivered a stack of towels to the garden baths, Bumblebee met her with much delight. "I'm so glad you're not working in the kitchen any more. Oh, and he's here. The guy you fell into."

Looking toward where his face pointed, she noticed two eyes on long green stalks watching from the coolest temperature tub. Two other pairs of the same watched as well. The water sloshed and part of Vaallo's bulk rose above the surface. "Miss Carly?" he called.

She approached timidly. "Yes, sir?"

"How is your new job working out? I spoke with the manager and arranged for a transfer."

"You did that? I wondered if you might have a hand in it... er... a tentacle. Sorry. I'm not familiar with your species."

Vaallo laughed. "I did. And you can say hand. I have a kind of a hand." He brought up a particular tentacle with a slightly bulbous end to it, which then unfolded into a wriggling fan of finger-like digits. "We each have four of these. They're great for keyboards and control panels."

"May I ask you something, sir?"

"Anything you wish, Miss Carly. I'm not shy."

"How come you know English? It's only spoken on one little planet on the other side of the galaxy, at least that I know of."

Vaallo laughed. "My people have been traveling the stars for a long time and have been visiting your planet. And I've spent time on Earth as well."

"Your people were on Earth? Or are on Earth? Where?" Carly hoped she didn't look as shocked as she felt. But perhaps the plant creature was psychic after all, for he began to shamble out of the soaking tub while calling to Bumblebee in a different language for a towel. "Don't worry about it," he told her. "Life is too short to worry about things you don't need to," he smiled.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly and Bumblebee came to the top of the mesa overlooking the spaceport sprawling below. They were just off the road where they had first approached the city and seen it for the first time. Only this time it was night, and it seemed a glittering snowflake of light. The rays of the rail-lines connecting the landing platforms and areas to the central hub were lit, as were the various buildings and perimeters. Both of Horobis' white moons hung high in the sky.

Bumblebee ejected the blanket he kept in a subspace pocket and spread it out where they would have a nice view, while Carly took her lunch and a sphere of energon from her pack. It wasn't much of a picnic, not like she and Spike used to have, when they'd down a liter of soda and devour mountains of sandwiches. But that was Earth. This was Horobis. At least she was discovering the things she could eat and what was unsuitable or poisonous.

"I'm so glad you're working in the laundry now. You seem happier with it," Bumblebee said.

"I am. It's so much better without that monster in the kitchen yelling at me all the time. I don't know what the plant creature said to him, but whatever it was it seemed to shut him up. And I'm sorry if I've been depressed. This whole experience of getting lost in space has just been one heck of a time for me."

"I understand. And I guess I've somewhat neglected you the past few days. I have been spending a lot of time with Vashi."

"What for?"

"I told you, she's my girlfriend now."

"Well she'd better not be charging you. That's how she makes her living you know."

Bumblebee reacted defensively. "She's not a prostitute. None of the hostesses are."

"Well then if you're not paying her, what's she see in you? You're some strange robot from the other side of the galaxy."

"She likes robots. And I help her wash off her cosmetics after a shift. And then rub her feet while she soaks in the tub. And I listen to her while she tells me about all the ugly alien men she had to entertain over her shift. _That's_ what she likes me for."

"She's using you."

"Well, no...there are other things too... She does things for me."

"Oh? What are you getting out of it?"

Bumblebee chuckled nervously. "She...likes to interface."

Carly almost dropped the sandwich she was eating, the very last one that had had been brought from Earth. "She's a robot?"

"No...not a robot. She's organic. We...do it her way. I'm flexible."

Carly felt herself blushing and she wasn't sure why. She was vaguely aware of the way the Autobots showed love and intimacy for each other. But to think of his steel and alloy body all over that softly scaled organic one was rather weird. And what sort of connection were they making? She tried push aside the images threatening to form of the two of them 'interfacing'."

"So you just give her a bath and then take her to bed?"

"Pretty much," said Bumblebee, suddenly feeling a bit guilty about the time spent with the lizardess. "Though sometimes we'll go out for a walk along the street. She loves the way everyone turns to look at her when she's dressed up. And she gets such a thrill when little girls will run up to her and ask her to touch their faces. There's a Taliseet superstition that beauty rubs off."

Suddenly she wondered if Bumblebee was teasing her, but looking over at him and spotting the guilty tilt to his eyes, visible even in the moonlight, she realized he was completely honest. "So no, she's not using me. I get something out of it too. And I do like hanging out with her."

Carly grimaced and went back to eating her sandwich. "At least you do. Well good. Good for you, to have made a close friend here."

Bumblebee wriggled a little closer, sensing what was going through her head. "Look, I know everything must be hard for you. You and Spike have been inseparable over the past few months. And now to lose him so suddenly, and to know you won't see him again for who knows how many more months." He reached over and took her hand. "And now here you are stuck on this rock in the middle of nowhere, working hard for a chance to return home, and everything's so strange and weird. I'm sorry if I've not been paying enough attention to you. Sometimes I forget how isolated you are because of the language thing. I'm the only one you have to talk to, well, and the tentacle plant thing, but he's a guest so it's not like you get to spend any time together. So I hope you'll forgive me and let me step back into your life. I know I tend to get carried away with being everyone's friend."

Carly suddenly felt bad for being jealous. "It's okay, and I'm sorry, 'Bee. I don't mean to be selfish, or to interfere with your love life. It's just that getting stuck here has gotten me down so much."

Bumblebee reached over to her, pulled her into a one-armed embrace. "I've just not been giving you the attention you need. Vashi's been receiving it."

Carly blushed again. "I didn't quite mean it like that."

"If you want, I'll break it off with her."

"No. You don't have to. I know you had a few lovers back on Earth and you probably miss them too. If she makes you happy, I shouldn't mind."

"But you do mind. And you needn't try to be so strong and independent. We have each other to lean on. "

She tried not to cry, but a few tears, some of hundreds shed in the past week, fell before she could stop them. "I think it's just because I miss Spike."

"Oh Carly." Bumblebee picked her up and cradled her in his arms. "Please don't worry. I can't do anything about what's happened, but I can try to make things easier for you. Spike is my best friend, and I should be the one to replace him while he's away. Would you let me until we return to Earth?"

"I'm not sure that's quite what I need..." The images of him and Vashi in bed together tried to form again.

"No, not in a romantic way. I just look after you more closely and be there when you need it. No more letting you fall asleep alone when you clearly need to be held and to know that someone's there for you."

Carly smiled up at him. How did he know all the right things to say? "Bumblebee...it's no wonder everyone loves you."

He gave her a hug and kissed the top of her head. "I'm just happy to have the chance to love you back."

He set her down and she finished eating in silence. And afterward they sat there for some time, watching three spaceships take off and five more land. The flurry of lights that rose around them as various service crews rolled out to meet them was always interesting. Like the garden at the hotel, the view was beautiful and helped them to forget the frustration of being so far from home and away from their lives and loves.

In time Carly fell asleep curled up against Bumblebee, emotionally exhausted again, but this time it there was a more positive feeling through it.

-o-o-o-o-o-

They were surprised to find two identical envelopes slipped under their door in the morning. Bumblebee, awake first as usual, had opened his and read it carefully, and was astounded to find that it contained an invitation from Vaallo.

"A party? Really? When?" Carly asked when she woke herself. Bumblebee had told her of the contents before she even opened hers.

"Tomorrow. It starts during third shift. But it's supposed to go on well into fourth quarter. I guess Vaallo's people like long parties. And it's being held on one of the docked ships in the space port."

"What language is yours written in? Mine's in English."

"Mine's in Pelagian. That's the language I've been using with him and the others like him at the baths. I looked up the registry of the ship currently on the platform listed on the invitation. It's a Den-Tash cargo-liner, so I looked them up. Den-Tash is a major transport company. They run cargo fleets all over this galaxy. Then I looked up his name in the spaceport registry, and learned a bit about this Vaallo."

"Oh?

"He's not just Vaallo. He's Captain Vakkaame Vaallo of the Eighteenth Fleet of Aolen, Chief Officer of the cargo-liner Third Horizon."

Carly was startled."A captain? Oh my gosh! I thought he was just some moldy lump of pasta alien."

"His race is Yiaan. They're a plant-type race, an ancient one at that. Noted explorers and pioneers, oddly enough. You mentioned those bracelets? They weren't bracelets. They were rank insignia. Because of their body shape, they wear anything like that on their eye-stalks. That's what scared Godzilla."

Carly looked again at her invitation. The handwriting on the front read 'Miss Carly, Laundry Maid, Garden Paradise Hotel,' which she giggled at. A degree from MIT and she was bleaching sheets and folding towels. "So the captain of a trade vessel is inviting lowly little me to a shipboard party. What's yours say?"

"Mine's addressed to 'Bumblebee, Garden Bath Attendant, Garden Paradise Hotel'."

The girl suddenly stiffened with another thought. "I hope my clothes are okay to wear to the party. I don't have anything besides what I left Earth with, and my work uniforms."

"Maybe Vashi could loan you something? If your clothes aren't really appropriate for a party here?" Despite the fact that he didn't own a scrap of clothing, he always found the layers the humans protected themselves with quite interesting, and he'd caught on to the fact that certain garments were appropriate or inappropriate for differing occasions.

"That's a good idea. She's not that much taller than I am, is she?" She looked up at Bumblebee, suddenly grateful that the Autobot had established a relationship with the lizardess.

"She has lots of clothes and jewelry. She needs them for her job."

Carly had to agree. In the time they'd been here, she didn't think she'd seen Vashi wear the same thing more than once. "Good, because I don't know who else to go to for help. I don't have any money yet, or any friends here at all, besides you. And you're as much of a stranger as I am."

"I'll ask her when I see her. Usually she comes by the baths a couple times during a shift...though usually with a guest, but I think I could work in a moment to talk to her."

"Thank you, 'Bee. Just tell her I need some of her help getting ready for a party. Though I'm guessing it's not going to be that formal or exclusive of a party if he's inviting lowly hotel workers like us to it."

"Or maybe he's hiring us to come tend the buffet table."

"He probably wants you to run the valet parking," she laughed.

"Well maybe it's not much of a ship. Maybe he just hauls garbage from one side of the octant to the other and he has a crew of cyberrats."

"Possibly." Being a captain doesn't always mean that much. And then she noticed the time on the wall. "Ooh...we need to get showered and ready for work."

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Stung continues in Chapter 6: "The Third Horizon"**

Jazz befriends an alien tribe of primates. Carly and Bumblebee are invited to a party aboard Captain Vaallo's ship. Turns out the sentient mass of tentacles isn't piloting a garbage scow. And Carly looks great in Bumblebee's girlfriend's clothes...even Bumblebee thinks so.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Thank you for reading! Feedback and communication is appreciated by any author. Send me a PM and I'll write back! Promise!

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

**A degree from MIT and...** – A running gag begins! Watch for it a few more times through the story.

**Vaallo** – I envision the Yiaan race pretty much as Carly sees it...the unholy result of breeding an aloe to a dish of pasta. I wanted to take the old tentacle monster cliché and play with it a bit, giving us a protagonist instead of a monster. Watch for tentacle non-rape scenes to come! If this were the 1950's, he'd just be some sexy middle aged man with a funky costume to designate that he was an alien. But hey, this is 2015! We're ready (maybe) to accept this sort of character.

**Autobots/Alien Women** – The mentions here are all canon, from the G1 episodes "The Girl Who Loved Powerglide," "Sea Change," "Auto Bop," and "The God Gambit." I'm not making them up, and there are plenty of fanfics addressing these relationships.

**Laundry** – When in college I worked in a hotel laundry room and cleaned rooms. I write a lot from experience. Did I mention the time I was stuck on an alien planet?

**Bumblebee/Vashi** – Xenophilia! If you don't like it...you might not want to read the rest of this story. Bumblebee ends up in the sack with three different alien women over the course of it, including Carly. She's an alien to him, after all.

**Vashi's Wardrobe** – She needs the outfits for work, but probably spends most of her money on clothes. She's a clothes horse, but always looks fabulous. You probably know someone like this.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	6. The Third Horizon

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 6: The Third Horizon**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Jazz came out of the river, having washed the dust out of his chassis, the monkey-men scattering playfully before him. The primates, slightly smaller than humans, had taken a great interest in him once they'd decided him not a threat.

And then they noticed the fish in his hands. He placed it before them at their fire and smiled. "Fish. Gift. Eat," he explained, using their language. He'd begun to pick it up quickly—all verbs and nouns with a few adjectives thrown in for variety.

Jazz smiled again and watched as they pounced on it, butchering the fish with their stone knives and threading pieces of it onto sticks, which they then roasted over their fire.

He sat down with them and watched them eat. They were definitely some sort of primate—half-hairy and tribal, but with a natural curiosity and a gentle social nature. Their stone tools were advanced, their agriculture was off to a good start, and they had some form of shamanistic religion. But metal had not been forged yet and the wheel still eluded them. Pottery was another advancement yet to come.

But he still had no idea where he was. Some alien planet somewhere with reddish moon that bore a resemblance to a deflated basketball. Nothing in his data banks matched such a moon though. His radio wasn't strong enough to call home. The others were gone. At least he'd made friends here with these primitive people, who found his metal hide fascinating, and their usual greeting now was to thump his leg plating with a fist, generating a loud bonging noise, which delighted them to no end.

The fish was gone quickly, and even the carcass had been slung onto a stick and roasted over the fire for anyone who wanted more. And as they sat about licking their fingers and wiping their faces with grass, one of the women took a piece of cold charcoal from the edge of their fire pit. She studied Jazz's chest for a moment, and then using the charcoal drew the same glyph the Autobot wore onto the chest of her mate, an Arabic numeral four in thick black lines.

"Hey, they say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," Jazz laughed.

The people all looked at him, trying to understand what he'd said.

Jazz grinned again and pointed to the marked chest. "Good," he translated.

It wasn't long before the rest of the group had marked themselves with the human symbol. They were now officially his people.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Carly sat in Vashi's room, letting the lizardess paint her face with cosmetics. And then Vashi dressed her in some of her robes, of which she had several clothing racks full. Next she opened a box and removed a headdress, and with a few adjustments to the band she found it fit Carly well enough. Carly looked at herself in the mirror and was stunned by the effect of Vashi's dressing. She wore three of the sheer robes—one white, one robin's egg blue, and one a medium blue. Underneath was a slip-like dress of bright blue, the sides slit up to the waist. And while the headdress was rather reserved compared to the one Vashi was wearing, it was still quite elaborate, looking much like the beaded, bejeweled, and befeathered headwear of 1920's Hollywood.

Vashi had been invited to the party as well, as had several of the other hotel employees. The hostess was already decked out in her finery, wearing three sheer robes in red, orange, and yellow and a tall headdress of dangling golden beads.

A knock came on the door. "Are you ready?" called Bumblebee's voice.

"Just about," answered Vashi. "Come in. It's unlocked."

The Autobot did, and he was stunned to find Carly looking as Vashi did for work. "Carly! That's amazing! Look at you!" He liked the way her face had been painted, halved across the eyes with a black line, her eyelids and forehead being painted a blue to match her gowns, and the cheeks below the line being painted with a rosy blush, to which some accenting circles of thick white paper outlined in black had been pasted.

"Like it?" she asked, holding out her arms and giving him a little twirl. "I'm a lizard geisha now."

"That's such a beautiful outfit. And that make-up is so...so...perfect." He patted Vashi's shoulder gently. "Thank you, Vashi, for your help. She looks lovely."

"I wish I could do something with her hair, but I'm not any good with it. I don't have any of my own," Vashi giggled. "But I gave her one of my headdresses to wear." The lizardess smiled and took his hand. "Well let's get going. No need to be later than we already are."

The three hurried out to the front of the hotel and stopped at the curb. Vashi looked up and down the street, hoping to catch one of the taxi shuttles that plied the town spaceport.

"Autobots, transform and roll out!" Carly barked, imitating Optimus Prime's voice as best she could.

With a laugh, Bumblebee switched to his vehicular mode and flung his doors open.

Vashi gaped. "So that's why your body's that shape. I wondered why you were so bulky! Why didn't you tell me before?"

"Get in!" called Carly, going to the driver's side and jumping into the seat.

"And all this time I've been getting taxi's for us," Vashi moaned and slapped the dashboard.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee followed the directions on the invitation, heading out to the designated landing pad. Their invitations got them through the first two checkpoints, though after seeing the faces of the security staff as they ogled Carly, and Vashi even more so, he decided that showing the invitations had probably been unnecessary. There at the final checkpoint, they got out and had their names double-checked against the guest list. "Ask him which ship is the Third Horizon" Carly instructed Bumblebee as she scrutinized the row of spaceships on the landing pads surrounding the hub where the checkpoint sat.

"Third Horizon?" The Horobian security guard turned and pointed. "That one. The big one."

"The big bronze-colored one?" Bumblebee clarified.

The guard nodded.

"Carly, I don't think Captain Vaallo's piloting a garbage scow," he breathed and pointed as the guards had. "It's that big bronze one at the back."

"That one? That thing's...ginormous...as Jazz would say."

"No kidding."

The craft stood on the outermost pad, illuminated from below by floodlights, its metallic skin glowing invitingly.

"It's a Valashian-built ultra-cargo ship," supplied Vashi. "The largest ship built that can make a planet-side landing."

"You knew he captained this?" Bumblebee asked. The Third Horizon was at least three times the size of the Autobot Ark. "We knew he was a captain, but had no idea that his ship was...so big."

She just gave him a teasing wink and clutched his arm.

"Just follow the green roadway lights to the cargo ramps. They'll tell you where to go from there, said the security guard.

Bumblebee transformed and the two girls got inside of his passenger compartment again. "I can't believe that's really his ship," Carly continued to gasp. "And to think that once I thought he was just some tentacle monster who could speak English. Why ever does he come to the hotel and stay there if he's got a ship like this?"

"Probably the same reason a lot of the space crews do. When you're stuck aboard a craft for months on end, it must be nice to escape to the gardens of the hotel. It's a little paradise where you can smell the flowers and stare at the sky and listen to the wind."

"I guess that makes sense."

Bumblebee pulled up at the bottom of the cargo ramp and transformed once the girls had exited. A host in uniform pointed the way inside, and they were astounded on reaching the main cargo deck of the Third Horizon. The cargo bay was open front and back to the night, a space so large Carly estimated that the Autobots could have parked their Ark inside of it were it not for the three rows of pillars running across it. There was cargo loaded aboard...huge crates and several smaller space ships, but there was plenty of room left for a party in the hold.

Vashi immediately recognized another of the hostesses from the Garden Paradise Hotel, and taking Bumblebee's hand she dragged him over to where she, also dolled up in her finery, was chatting with a group of Valashians in uniform.

Carly sighed and let them go, Bumblebee giving her an apologetic look over his shoulder. Perhaps if she could find Vaallo, she would have someone to talk to. And she did find him—at the center of the party, surrounded by Yiaan and other crewmen. A tall golden-scaled Taliseet woman hanging on his arm...well, one of his tentacles.

So Carly wandered over to the buffet, hoping to find something to eat. There were a lot of salads and fruits and pastries on the long table, and she was stunned to find a bowl of raspberries...real honest to goodness raspberries. She quickly dished a number of them onto her plate, and then on popping one into her mouth she sighed with pleasure. What were raspberries doing here aboard a giant alien freighter? And then she noticed celery and carrots as well. Vaallo had mentioned that his people had been on Earth, and that he himself had visited. That had to be the connection.

She took her plate and sat at one of the lower tables and did her best not to inhale the raspberries. They weren't the best she'd ever had, but they were delicious and comforting all the same. The carrots were sweet and the celery was crisp, and she enjoyed every bite.

A pair of Valashians came over with their plates, sat down, smiled, and greeted her. And as much as she would have liked to start up a conversation with them, the lack of a shared language prevented it. Her few words of Pelagian didn't go very far but they seemed to understand.

Across the area, Bumblebee was being Mr. Popular with both of the hostesses now hanging on his arms. And when the band came back from break, the two dragged him out onto the dance floor and started to have some fun with him there.

Carly sighed and tried to content herself with watching the others and enjoying the unexpected vegetable delights of Earth. The mix of aliens was interesting after all. There were creatures of quite a few races, many of which she didn't recognize. She'd seen Vaallo and a few other Yiaan at the hotel, but there were three present of a different appearance. Instead of the solid or lightly banded green skin she knew, the ends of their tentacles and their eyestalks were gaily colored. One was purple. One was orange. One was pink. And behind their eyestalks were what appeared to be flowers. At first she thought they were ornaments, like the headresses the hostesses and the other women wore, but when the purple one came over and began talking to the Valashians at her table, she saw that the flowers were actually part of the creature's body. And from them wafted a remarkably sweet perfume.

Perhaps they were female. Or perhaps of a different race of Yiaan. Or maybe they were of some different but oddly similar alien race. If only Vaallo weren't so occupied, she could ask him. But every time she looked over at him he was surrounded by friends and crewmates.

One of the Valashians was noticing that Carly didn't have a drink, and so at one point, he took her hand and led her over to the bar, where a bartender stood amidst a wide variety of punchbowls and bottles of all sizes and colors. There was even a bowl full of energon spheres. The Valashian tapped his fingers in front of a bottle, and the bartender poured him a glass of the contents. And then he encouraged Carly to do the same. She looked at the bottles timidly, and was about to try to get some water when she noticed one of a familiar shape. She couldn't read the label, save for the fact that it contained a Chardonnay from France. Stunned again, she tapped the table enthusiastically and the bartender poured a glass for her. Excited, she sipped it immediately. It was exactly what it said—French white wine.

She returned to her table and went back to her people-watching, one of the Valashians coming back with a plate of raspberries, carrots, celery, and salad for her. Apparently he'd been watching what the alien beauty had been eating, and she thanked him. At least she knew how to do that in Pelagian. Later he brought her another glass of wine.

And after her third glass of Chardonnay, she looked up to find Vaallo standing before her. "Miss Carly, you look lovely."

Carly stood and blushed...not that anyone could see a blush under all the makeup. "Oh, Captain Vallo," she answered, almost surprised that he'd recognized her.

"Horobian clothing suits you very well."

"Oh, thank you. Bumblebee's girlfriend loaned me a dress to wear."

"She chose well." He looked over to where Bumblebee and Vashi were dancing together. "Ah...Vashi. She is a delight." And then he extended a hand toward the human girl. "May I dance with you? I've finally managed to get a moment to say hello and now they finally seem to be playing something suitably slow enough for me to dance to." Yiaan moved slowly on their six short pedes, though their tentacles could move with surprising rapidity.

Carly giggled and took his hand. "All right."

She followed the captain onto the floor and let him lead her through what seemed to be a slow waltz more or less. Another slow song followed, and the two continued to dance. Carly loved the way the Captain spun her from a tentacle raised above her head, and how when she'd stumble on the sandals...their size just a bit too large for her feet, he would steady her about the waist with another limb.

But then the band picked up the tempo and Vaallo led Carly away to the side of the party, and he stood glancing about the hold. "So what do you think of my ship?" he asked.

"It's amazing. Bumblebee and I saw it from the mesa above Hax Horobis two nights ago, but we had no idea that it was yours, or that we've ever be aboard it. I'd love to see the engines some time." She gestured up to the ceiling of the cargo bay. "And those cranes up there for moving cargo in and out...genius! I've been staring at them since we got here."

He crooked a single eye at her. "Oh? What interest would you have in engines and cranes?"

"Mechanical things interest me. That's how I met Bumblebee in the first place. I wanted to see some real robots. Earth's cybernetics are nowhere close to their level...yet."

"Oh? Really?"

"They're visiting aliens on Earth. I couldn't resist trying to meet one."

Vaallo laughed and he shambled a little further away from the party, leading her by the hand. "And here I thought you were just a pretty face."

"Not to sound too full of myself, but I do have a degree from one of the top technical universities on Earth."

Vaallo's eyes swiveled to look at her. "I am surprised, Miss Carly. So much for you just being a scullery maid."

"A laundry maid now, thanks to you," she corrected teasingly. "My degree is coming in most handy—I appreciate you getting me a job in thermodynamics and hydrology—not my exact focus of study, but close enough. But anything to get away from that kitchen manager."

Vaallo laughed at her joke. "You'll be home soon enough and back in your element. I see you found the wine. I was hoping you might like it."

"You put that on the drinks table...for me?"

"I thought something familiar might bring a smile to your face. I didn't know if you liked wine though."

"I do. I like a glass of wine now and then. And...were you responsible for the raspberries and the carrots and the celery too?"

"I could lie and say 'yes' to impress you. But no, the gardeners just brought in what was ripe and ready to eat."

"Gardeners? Here in Hax Horobis?"

"No-no...aboard the Third Horizon. We do grow some fresh food here on the observation rings."

"It was wonderful. I thought I was seeing things at first."

At that point someone called to Vaallo, and they looked to see a Valashian officer heading over. Three Yiaan were waiting at the edge of the party area—the pink one and the purple one and a green one. Vaallo took one of Carly's hands in two of his and he smiled. "Thank you for coming tonight. It looks like I'm about to be pulled away and chances are I won't get to talk to you again. So I'll wish you a sweet goodnight. And I'll look you up the next time I'm in port, if you haven't returned home yet."

"Thank you for inviting Bumblebee and me. It was nice to get out and do something tonight...and to have some Earth foods."

Vaallo smiled and patted her hand. She got the feeling that he would have liked to kiss it, but his Yinnic physiology would make it awkward. He departed, and she returned to her table.

The party continued, more guests arriving and the band playing on and on. At some point Bumblebee came over with a few Yiaan, saying "These guys speak English too." Suddenly Carly was surrounded in a cluster of greenery, the three all excitedly asking her about Earth and the places she'd been. And after two more hours, Bumblebee had to extract her from their clutches, so he could take her and Vashi home once more.

Carly and Vashi fell asleep on the drive back to the Garden Paradise Hotel, so Bumblebee drove as gently as possible. If it had been a long distance, he would have pulled to the side of the road and joined them in recharge. How many times had he done that with Spike back on Earth? Coming up to the curb at the hotel, he jostled them awake and out onto the street. The two girls staggered out and he transformed. "We're home," he said and led them in, waving at the clerks manning the front desk.

"Oh Bumblebee, that was so much fun," Carly yawned once back in their room.

"It was good to see you having so much fun. You've needed a chance to let off some steam."

"And there was wine! Real wine from Earth! And the Captain even sent a bottle to my table for me to take home," she said, cradling her prize before setting it onto the low shelf. She began to undress, stripping off the layers of clothing Vashi had put her in. And when she noticed that Bumblebee was watching her, she hummed and made a little dance of it. That real wine from Earth hadn't worn off yet.

He smiled at her playfulness and hummed along. "I took lots of pictures at the party to show Spike when we get back. I know he'll want to see you dressed in native garb."

"Native garb? You make it sound so exotic. It's just what Vashi wears to work."

"It is exotic. I've not seen too many Earthlings dressed that way...if any."

"And it's beautiful," she said, folding it into a neat pile as best she could. The sheer fabric, slightly stiff, had something of a mind of its own.

"Well lets go wash off your makeup before you go to bed, shall we?"

Carly giggled. "You just don't know when to stop doing your job, do you?"

"I guess not," he chortled.

In the bath he sat her on his thigh under the showerhead and washed her face while she hummed another tune. And when Vashi came in she wanted the same treatment. And so did some of the other employees that had also attended the party. Bumblebee was in too good of a mood to turn anyone down. The party had brightened them all up.

Carly decided that she would fall asleep in the soaking tubs if she even walked past one, and so went back to their room. By the time Bumblebee was finished, she was sound asleep in the middle of their bed. Bumblebee rolled her onto her side of the mattress so he could lie next to her. "Mmmm... 'Bee. You're the best. You take such good care of me."

"Just until we're home again and Spike can have his job back."

"But by then I'm going to be spoiled by all your attention. You're raising the bar. He's never given me a bath or washed off my makeup. Not like you do."

She said nothing else but fell right back asleep. Bumblebee stayed awake a while longer watching her in the near darkness, his optics adjusted to a low-light setting. Maybe it was wrong to work so hard to please her. After all, she'd had a life before she'd met him and Spike. What if she was right about raising the bar? What if he was setting Spike up for failure once they were back on Earth?

He placed a hand around her waist and pulled Carly in closer. Well so what? With things as they were, she deserved a bit of extra attention. And he was ready to provide it to her. Once they were back, things would return to just as they had been before the space bridge accident.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"**Stung" continues in Chapter 7: "The Day the Storm Hit" **Bumblebee sends a message home to the Autobots on Earth. The return message contains a special present for Bumblebee from the lover he left behind. But bad news has come with the good. On researching transport home, the plan to return to Earth has hit a snag.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

Thank you for reading! If you like a story, let the author know with a follow, a favorite, or a PM...it encourages them to keep writing!

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

**Author Notes**

**Jazz's People** – They're a pre-pottery Neolithic civilization. More about them in future chapters.

**1920's Headdresses** – Some of these got amazingly elaborate for theater and film spectaculars. I can just imagine Vashi having a bunch of them on head-stands in her room, something pretty to cover her bald scales with.

**Taxi Service** – I think Bumblebee would have been having a good time not having to drive his girlfriend around since he pretty much spends half his time with Spike and Carly doing that

**Earth Foods** – There will be more on why these things are aboard Vaallo's ship in later chapters.

**Pedes** – I have to say it. Robots have feet. Yiaan have pedes. Sometimes the fanon and/or techniques in this category bugs me.

**Raising the Bar** – Oh, just wait until we get to Chapter 9. There's no way Carly will ever want to go back to a plain old human being after... well... never mind.

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


	7. The Day the Rainstorm Hit

**Stung**

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Chapter 7: The Day the Storm Hit**

-o-o-o-o-o-

Bumblebee's wages had cleared through the bank and he felt wealthy suddenly, a notable sum having filled a previously empty account. Up until now they'd been spending all of his tip money for things they needed. So after first shift the next day, Bumblebee and Carly went to the spaceport terminal to send their message home to Earth. But first he took Carly to lunch at one of the cafes in the spaceport, surprised to find one with quite a few dishes she recognized as edible to her. And over lunch they composed messages to the Autobots, some private...some public. There were pictures too. The hotel. The gardens. Carly sleeping. Carly folding laundry. Racki and her scrub-brushes. Racki engulfing Bumblebee in her plasm. Vashi in her finery. Carly in Vashi's finery. Hax Horobis at night from the mesa above it. He put them all together with a couple of video recordings Bumblebee had made. There was even one of Carly dancing with Captain Vaallo at the party the night before. "Spike's going to love that, seeing his girlfriend having fun with some other man," he teased.

"I somehow don't think he'll get jealous of a blob of green spaghetti. Besides, Spike's like you guys. He's not the jealous sort."

"Smokescreen's going to wish he were here when he sees Vashi. He likes that sort of look to his women."

"Reptilian? Colorful?"

Bumblebee grinned. "Yes."

"And apparently you do too."

"Yes, but I didn't realize it I did until I met her."

Carly laughed and finished her salad. "You don't have to spend less time with her, and she has been a good friend to us. I guess I was just getting needy. I've felt better since we talked, and talking to Vaallo and his crew last night was really nice. I didn't feel so left out."

"I'm glad. What did you talk about? Long goodbyes since they're leaving tonight?"

"Quite a bit actually, though mostly about Earth. Most of the Yiaan in that crew have been to Earth, which is kind of a creepy thought. But they love our planet, especially Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands." She picked up the herbal tea she'd ordered and sipped thoughtfully. "They like humans, but they're disappointed that we've not embraced life beyond our own atmosphere as a whole yet. I told them that was changing, in part to you Cybertronians, and that probably within a century we'd get over our insularity. They were happy to hear that—they're rather long-lived for organics. Six-hundred...seven hundred years." She set her tea down and leaned back into her chair with a little giggle. "It was kinda funny though. They spoke English with an Australian accent. Not a strong one, but definitely Australian. Some of that dialect too. Vaallo has something of a French accent."

"Interesting. I wonder if that's where they were on Earth."

"I'd guess it was. I'm glad I got to thank Captain Vaallo again last night, for his saving me from Godzilla. And we got to dance, and he even snuck me away from the party to talk for a while. I'm kinda sad to see him go."

"Who wouldn't have wanted to talk to you? You looked so pretty in those clothes. We should get you a Horobian party dress while you're here."

"But that would take a lot of our travel money. I don't think those clothes Vashi wears are cheap."

"Doesn't matter. We'll just work a little longer. Maybe I could pick up some extra shifts or something. Getting back alone will take several months. Besides, we'll never see this planet again once we leave."

"Such a long way..." she sighed and went back to her bowl of seasoned grain.

"You know, I think it's going to rain," said Bumblebee, changing the subject, his optics looking out of the cafe window. The day had begun sunny, but from the west over the jagged mountains a heavy bank of dark cloud had been moving ever closer, having originally been behind the peaks, but now was scraping the tops of them.

"They do look like storm clouds."

"Vashi said that when it rains here, it really rains."

"Oh?" Carly picked at the last few noodles on her plate and thought of Vaallo again.

"She said that there's no such thing as light rain. It's either fully on or fully off," he chuckled.

As Bumblebee paid the bill for their meal, the sunshine disappeared behind the flat, grey clouds that formed the thin, leading edge of the storm. Then they headed off in the direction of the communications office to send the information packet to Earth. While he saw to that, Carly waited outside studying one of the terminal's information boards.

The departure/arrivals boards, normally a peaceful wash of pale blue Pelagian text on black, were now peppered with entries in orange and green. Her eyes scanned for the docking area for the Third Horizon, and noted that next to the ship name was a countdown timer. The text was in orange.

When Bumblebee came back out, she asked for a translation. "Looks like the Third Horizon's taking off early today," he said. "A number of the ships here appear to be either delayed or have been bumped up. That big block of orange text at the top is a storm warning. I guess it _is_ going to rain."

Carly looked at the board again and tried to convert the timer into Earth time. "Let's see...if I'm right, the Third Horizon should be taking off in...about half an hour!" she gasped. "Ooh! Lets go up to the observation tower and watch it take off!"

"Hey, good idea," Bumblebee agreed.

They took the moving walkway and an elevator to the spaceport's observation tower, a glass-walled deck some six stories up from which they could see the town and landing pads spread about. They easily spotted the Third Horizon, the huge caramel-colored ship sitting out on the edge of the pads. It was well lit and the support vehicles and structures that had surrounded it had all been pulled away. The ominous-looking bank of dark cloud now hung over the high bluffs to the west.

Bumblebee and Carly sat on one of the benches. There were other observers in the tower as well, watching some of the smaller ships take off and commenting on the approaching storm. Intracloud lighting was now visible. Everyone followed along on the departures/arrivals board, countdown timers being the key to where action would happen next. Some of the arrivals were posted in green, which meant they'd been delayed as well. From what they could tell, there were at least five ships hanging in orbit waiting until the storm passed. Four were posted in purple, which meant they'd been diverted to Torix Horobis, a smaller, less commercial spaceport on the other side of the planet.

As the countdown timer for the Third Horizon approached zero, Bumblebee and Carly went to the window and watched as the ship's engines lit up and the rest of the craft darkened, save for what they guessed would be the bridge, which sat bubble-like atop the hull. "If I had Cosmos' or Bluestreak's optics, I could probably see Vaallo up there," commented Bumblebee when their conversation turned that way.

"Really? Their eyes are that good?"

"Easily. A few others have the high-end optics too. Ratchet throws a fit when one of them gets busted in the face. Circuits and lenses like that are difficult to replace...if they can even find the parts to replace them with."

They waited breathlessly as the countdown time reached zero and the engines of the Third Horizon roared to life, the sound audible in the tower even though the craft was a couple miles away. And they watched in awe as the craft rose into the sky, visibly ruffling the front edge of the oncoming storm. The observers all murmured with approval and amazement.

The Third Horizon lifted through the clouds, leaving a swirling hole behind it through which the tattered edge of the storm swirled upwards.

"I wonder if we'll see him again," Bumblebee mused.

"I don't know, but I'd like to."

The first bolts of lightning were striking the western navigational towers that stood sentinel on the hills when one of the spaceport security guards came up and asked everyone to leave the tower because of the oncoming storm. While some of the others protested, in particular the group of Taliseet adolescents that had obviously been planning to weather the tempest in dramatic style atop the observation deck, the rest headed back down to the terminal. "Let's go to the travel office and see about passage home, shall we? Now that we have money coming in I suppose it's time to start looking into that."

"You're just full of good ideas today," laughed Carly, taking Bumblebee's hand.

"I do my best," he smiled back.

As the sky overhead began to darken, Bumblebee found an office that advertised "cheap transport to anywhere." On translating the sign for her, Carly remarked that this seemed to be just what they were looking for. The office wasn't busy, and so they went in, waited a bit to talk to an agent, and then took a seat with a Taliseet woman who was unusually solid black in color. Carly sat next to Bumblebee, leafing through a stack of travel and resort guides while Bumblebee did the talking as always. Around them the sound of closing shutters and vents punctuated the usual quiet of the terminal. Businesses and offices were closing up as the wind began to rise. On the street outside merchants hurriedly wheeled in their outdoor displays, and the curbside merchants dropped their shutters. Everyone seemed to know what was coming.

As Bumblebee and the woman talked, screen after screen of travel information coming up for them on her computer display, the first crack and crash of thunder hit, a bolt connecting with the spaceport's control tower. The electric lights flickered for a moment, causing everyone in the office to pause briefly and look up. Moments later work resumed, only for everyone to pause again as the approaching wall of rain slammed against the building with unexpected force. The black-scaled woman cringed, as did most of the others in the room, including Carly. The noise from the metal roof was deafening, and Bumblebee ended up on the same side of the desk so the conversation could continue without them having to shout.

Carly moved over to the window that overlooked the street. The low spots in the normally dry, dusty pavement were already turning into puddles, and the gutters began to run with muddy water. She wondered how the gardens at the hotel would fare against the assault. Would those gauzy shades be nothing but tatters hanging across the courtyard once thethe storm had passed?

A blinding flash of lightning filled the room for a moment, followed seconds later by the tear and rumble of the thunder. Bumblebee came over to look out the window as most of the people in the office were doing now. The gutters were so full of water that they were beginning to crest the curb in several places. Outside the terminal, the closely spaced drains that had once seemed ridiculous on this desert planet now defended their existence as they swallowed the heavy rain into slurping vortexes.

The deluge continued another fifteen minutes before lessening, and in another fifteen minutes it had come to a stop.

Carly wandered back from the window to find that Bumblebee had finished with the agent and was standing near the door. Instead of the usually sunny look he wore, there was frustration and disappointment.

"Bad news?"

The sad face nodded and he walked out into the central corridor of the terminal. They went over to one of the benches and Bumblebee sat heavily, leaning forward with his elbows upon his knees.

"Really bad news?"

The robot vented and looked over at her. "Not 'really' bad. Just disappointing."

"How much is it going to cost to get home?"

"A lot...because there aren't any direct routes between here and familiar space."

"That doesn't sound good."

"We can catch a flight from here to Boltrax Eighty, which is a major hub. And then from there we can get one to Outpost Pandless. And from Outpost Pandless we can catch another flight to Gloron III, where Cosmos could pick us up."

"Wow, that sounds really roundabout."

"Yeah...and that's the most direct route we can get without hiring a private charter."

Carly slumped and took Bumblebee's hand. "Do I even want to know how long it will take to make that journey?"

"Well, if we can catch a high-speed flight from Boltrax to Pandless, it would only take about four months total. A slower ship would take about six or seven months, but the cost would be much less."

"Private charter?"

"Four times the cost."

Carly groaned. "So either we spend our time working here on Horobis or sitting around on a spaceship."

"Essentially. Either way, we won't be home for nearly a year."

Carly tried not to cry. As they'd discussed before, this wasn't even close to the worst thing that could have happened to them, but still they'd both rather be back with their own kind.

For quite a while they sat on the bench, leaning against each other for comfort, hands petting each other in a mutual need for reassurance. When Carly yawned a second time, they decided to head back to the hotel and get some sleep. Together they walked the freshly washed streets, the rain having let up, leaving behind a humid mist. The water in the gutters, raging torrents not so long ago, had dwindled to mere trickles.

-o-o-o-o-o-

Four Horobian days later, as Bumblebee and Carly were having their post-shift meal in the employee break room, a message came in via the interstellar telegram office. "It's from Optimus!" Bumblebee exclaimed on seeing the sender's name. They had been waiting anxiously for a reply since having sent their message to Earth. He quickly pulled out a data pad, plugged it into himself with one of the cables in his wrist and brought up the main video file.

There were Optimus and Spike, the two of them at Optimus' desk, and a few other Autobots behind them almost jostling each other to get on screen. "Greetings from Earth," Optimus began. "I cannot tell you what a relief it was to get your messages. We're glad to hear that you're all right and managing to fend for yourselves on a strange world." He paused as if taking a breath. "Horobis... You're an inexplicable distance from Earth. When the message came in and we looked up where you were, we were shocked. We had no idea that the space bridge could even operate over such a distance."

"Thanks for testing it for us!" chirped Wheeljack, leaning into the shot, fins flashing merrily. "Now if I can just figure out how it sent you so far."

Other hands grabbed him and dragged him back, hissing disapproval at his sense of humor.

"Apparently the Decepticons, finding they couldn't keep us from using the bridge, came up with a little sub-program as a deterrent. It took us a bit to figure it out too, and we've still not been able to counteract it. Basically, anyone that isn't carrying a certain operational key gets sent to the wrong coordinates. Ingenious really. We suspect Shockwave is behind it."

"Unauthorized passengers are sent unpredictably across the galaxy," supplied Perceptor.

"I know that your first concern is for the other Autobots who were on that mission with you," continued Optimus. He looked at Spike, standing on his desk next to him. "Of the seven that went, only Spike and Huffer made it to Cybertron. However they were sent to coordinates other than the original ones."

"But we were still able to find a supply of Cybertonium and bring it back!" boasted Spike proudly.

"Brawn was recovered from Earth's moon," Optimus continued. "We have not been able to make contact Jazz or Skids..." The concern in Optimus' voice was obvious. A rumble from the gathered mechs echoed Prime's worry.

Prime straightened. "I'll keep this short and end here, since a number of us wish to include personal messages, but again, we are cheered to hear from you. And it sounds like you have a solid plan to return to us. We shall await any further messages from you, and await your return. Optimus Prime out."

The message ended with a salute from Optimus and waves from the rest. And then a large number of file headers popped up—private text and video messages from various friends. Bumblebee and Carly went through them together, enjoying the words of greeting and comfort from their family. And when it came to Spike's message for Carly, Bumblebee asked if she wanted to watch it alone, but she smiled and told him to open it.

The message wasn't much more than Spike gushing about how much he missed her and hoping that she and Bumblebee would earn enough money to return soon. And then he gave a report of the mission to Cybertron and how he and Huffer had actually become fairly good friends, the two of them being left alone with a mission to accomplish. "I'll have to keep working on it though so he doesn't forget that I'm okay for a human being." And then he got a little sad and stifled a sniffle. "I guess that's all I have to say so I'll go now, but work hard and get back here as soon as you can. I miss you and I love you," he concluded and blew a kiss to the camera before switching off the recording function.

"That was sweet," she said, her own eyes growing a little moist. Bumblebee hugged her comfortingly. The message from him to Bumblebee had been about the same, only without any romantic overtones, and the kiss at the end was skipped.

-o-o-o-o-o-

When Carly slipped into recharge, Bumblebee opened the file from Smokescreen to him. When he'd seen the size of it, he'd suspected that it might contain some rather inappropriate material. And that was immediately confirmed when the video began to play.

Smokescreen was there, twirling the jack end of an interface cable between his fingers almost absent-mindedly. "Hello, bright one," smiled the red and blue mech. "I about dropped my transmission when word came that there was a message from you and Carly. Optimus was pretty brief with the general message from us, but quite a few of us have been really worried about you. And so now we're just down to just Jazz and Skids, and honestly most of us aren't too worried, given where the rest of you ended up, so we're sure they'll be just fine. Well... honestly... no one here is losing any recharge over it. Jazz is either tougher or smarter than most stuff out there and can handle himself. And Skids? Well...no one really seems to know him besides Optimus and Jazz and Prowl. If he makes it back, I'm not sure anyone would even notice that he was gone in the first place.

Smokescreen leaned in a little closer to the camera at this point. "On the other hand, Spike's been so anxious about you and Carly, and no offense, but annoyingly so at times. When your message came in he finally calmed down and quit pestering Cosmos and Jetfire to go out and look for you two. I don't think he really comprehends how big space is. So anyway, you're found and safe and well, so I made you a little something to show you how much I missed you," he gave his devious smirk to the camera, "and to show you what I wish I could be doing with you right now." He then dangled the cable's end in front of the camera. "I'll bet you've been missing this too," he said slyly. "As far as I know you can't plug in to Carly."

There was a giggle from off screen at the comment, which made Smokescreen look away for a moment, smirk again, and then reach for the camera. "So here's a little present for you...and for me too."

He swung the camera's lens around, revealing now that he was in his own quarters, identified by the collection of various hard currencies that had been glued to the wall above the berth's alcove. The lens refocused on the bed, where a sight both tantalizing and humorous awaited. There, sprawled out seductively on his side was Cliffjumper. Only he'd been painted yellow and marked with an exaggeratedly large Volkswagen logo on his chest panel that hid his Autobot symbol. Cliffjumper waved at the camera, a goofy grin on his face, which made Bumblebee grin back.

This was going to be most entertaining.

**-o-o-o-o-o-**

"**Stung" continues in Chapter 8: "The Grand Canyon" **

-o-o-o-o-o-

Please send a little feedback my way if you're enjoying the story. Commentary is appreciated! Very much so.

-o-o-o-o-o-

**Author Notes**

**Vaallo's Accent** – will be explained later in the story. Patience, dear readers.

**High-end Optics** – Some of the Autobots would have them due to their functions, or perhaps their fortunes. Quite possibly they'd not be mounted in the head with the usual optics. I could imagine Cosmos having them somewhere on his frame while the ones on his face would be fairly standard.

**The Storm** – If you've ever weathered a desert thunderstorm, you know how powerful and overwhelming they can be.

**Cliffjumper's Cosplay** – I've decided to give Smokescreen a bit of a thing for 'robots in disguise.'

-o-o-o-o-o-

_Transformers _and all related concepts, characters, worlds, and events are property of Hasbro and Takara Tomy. Original characters and story elements are property of E. Potter, writing under the pen name of Miratete.


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